India’s ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, will wrap up his time period in workplace in Washington DC on the finish of January and retire from authorities service after a 35-year lengthy profession that was marked by 4 postings in America, individuals conversant in the event mentioned.

Sandhu, a 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, served because the ambassador in DC since early 2020 and navigated a turbulent but additionally a transformative interval within the relationship beneath two completely different administrations — led by Donald Trump after which Joe Biden — giving the connection a really bipartisan flavour.

He additionally served as deputy chief of mission between 2013 and 2016, when he labored beneath exterior affairs minister S Jaishankar who was then serving because the ambassador to DC. Sandhu’s first posting to US was as a younger political officer dealing with the US Congress within the wake of the nuclear exams in 1998, giving him a deep grounding in American politics which helped him in subsequent stints. He has additionally served stint in India’s everlasting mission to the UN in New York.

Sandhu was set to retire final January however the authorities gave him a one-year extension given the significance of the connection with US, and his interactions with key interlocutors and grasp over politics in Washington. The previous yr was notably important for the connection with the launch of the initiative on important and rising applied sciences (iCET) and one of the vital profitable state visits by an Indian PM to Washington, the place Biden hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a grand welcome reception on the lawns of the White House and a state dinner in addition to deepening cooperation in a number of strategic domains. The go to noticed each side agree on the GE jet engine deal, main investments within the semiconductor area, the settlement on Predator drones, and a choice to deepen collaboration throughout a number of world theatres. During the Indian presidency of G20, Sandhu additionally performed a task in guaranteeing that the US remained broadly supportive of New Delhi’s quest for a consensus-based declaration.

Sandhu’s phrases within the US have been additionally marked by challenges. If, in his first stint, he needed to clarify India’s choice to undertake nuclear exams to a hostile Congress, in his second time period, he was in DC through the Devyani Khobragade incident. As ambassador, Sandhu has needed to cope with criticism within the American public sphere on questions concerning India’s democratic trajectory, work along with the US by means of Covid-19, navigate variations with the administration on Russia on the outset of the struggle in Ukraine (the place Sandhu’s expertise of serving to arrange the Indian embassy in Kyiv within the early Nineteen Nineties helped), and extra lately, make sure that allegations implicating a authorities of India official in an assassination plot on American soil didn’t have an effect on the broader relationship.

Terming Sandhu as a “fantastic” ambassador, Ashley J Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a distinguished strategic analyst, mentioned that in contrast to his predecessors, Sandhu assumed his place at a time when American doubts about Indian trajectory and insurance policies have been rising. “By his sheer geniality and his patient willingness to engage all — in the administration, on the Hill and in civil society through the US — he compelled his interlocutors to consider India’s perspectives more thoughtfully than they may have done otherwise. No one could have done this better than Taranjit did — he changed minds by tugging at the heart”, Tellis mentioned.

Sandhu’s spouse, Reenat Sandhu, is India’s ambassador to the Netherlands. He additionally comes from a household with a wealthy legacy in Punjab, the place his grandfather, Teja Singh Samundri, was one of many early leaders of the Gurudwara reform motion and is the one non-guru in whose reminiscence there’s a constructing within the Golden Temple advanced in Amritsar and his father, Bishan Singh Samundri, was the primary Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar.

Mukesh Aghi, president and CEO of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum and a very long time observer and participant within the deepening of relationship, mentioned Sandhu had been “one of the most effective Indian ambassadors” to the US. “He has been able to convey and coordinate US-India strategic partnership in a very positive manner. He also successfully executed the state visit of the PM to the US in June last year. His network on the Hill, with the executive branch, and with the State Department has been effective and efficient. We will sorely miss him,” Aghi mentioned.