Ms Srivastava, a 2005 IFS officer will turn into the primary girl within the function.

New Delhi:

Geetika Srivastava can be India’s new cost d’affaires at its High Commission in Islamabad, changing into the primary girl to carry that submit.

Currently serving as joint secretary on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), she is going to succeed Dr M Suresh Kumar who’s prone to return to New Delhi.

Although the job entails a number of tasks, a cost d’affaires is a diplomat who briefly heads a diplomatic mission out of the country within the absence of the Ambassador or High Commissioner.

Diplomatic missions between Commonwealth nations are known as High Commissions, whereas these between non-Commonwealth nations are known as Embassies.

The Indian and Pakistani missions in Islamabad and New Delhi have been with out High Commissioners since August 2019 and are being headed by their respective cost d’affaires.

Ajay Bisaria was the final Indian High Commissioner to Islamabad earlier than Pakistan downgraded the standing of the High Commission following the abrogation of Article 370.

Since 1947, when the late Sri Prakasa took cost as India’s High Commissioner in Pakistan, there have been 22 heads of the mission. Ms Srivastava, a 2005 Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer will turn into the primary girl within the function.

She served within the Indian High Commission in China from 2007 to 2009 and likewise had postings on the Regional Passport Office in Kolkata and as Director of the Indian Ocean Region division within the exterior affairs ministry.

Women diplomats from India have served in Pakistan beforehand however not in prime positions corresponding to this. Additionally, the function of a High Commissioner in Pakistan, in addition to the rigours of worldwide diplomacy, particularly between two nations which have been at loggerheads since 1947, comes with its distinctive set of challenges.

Islamabad was designated a “non-family” posting for Indian diplomats a number of years in the past, which performs a task in limiting girls officers from taking on the function.