Diplomat Arun Singh, left, with French President Francois Hollande.
India has named Arun Singh, currently its Ambassador to France, as its next top envoy to the US and has informed the American government in this regard.
A 1979-batch IFS officer, Mr Singh will be replacing S Jaishankar, who was appointed as Foreign Secretary on January 28 this year. According to officials, government was looking at Mohan Kumar, Indian Ambassador to Bahrain as a possible replacement of Mr Singh.
India has already informed the US government naming Mr Singh as its next Ambassador and was awaiting a response from the Obama Administration.
However, officials say that the new shuffling will be only done after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to Paris in April. Mr Modi is likely to travel to Canada in April on a bilateral visit and is expected to make a stop-over in Germany while going and in Paris on return.
Mr Singh, who has been joint secretary in-charge of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan devision in Ministry of External Affairs, has done postings in Japan, Israel among other countries. He has also served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington for nearly five years.