KATHMANDU: India has proposed Navin Srivastava, currently head of East-Asia Division at the Ministry of External Affairs, as the new envoy for Nepal.
India has already forwarded the name of Srivastava to the Nepali side for its approval before a formal announcement is made, as per multiple media reports in Kathmandu.
Srivastava will replace Vinay Mohan Kwatra who has already taken the charge of India's Foreign Secretary on May 1.
After Nepal's approval of the agreement, the Government of India will announce the appointment of Srivastava in place of Kwatra.
Srivastava, a 1993 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, had earlier served as India's ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia and was Consul General of India in Shanghai.
Currently, Srivastava is an additional secretary at India's Ministry of External Affairs and heads the crucial East-Asia Division that looks after matters relating to China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Republic of Korea.
Srivastava, the proposed Delhi's ambassador to Kathmandu, is considered a strong China hand, and most importantly, as per the Indian media, after Galwan skirmishes between the Indian and Chinese troops in May 2020, he was the point person from the Indian diplomatic side at the Corps Commander-level meeting with the Chinese side.
India and China have set up different mechanisms to sort out the decades-old boundary dispute and as the in-charge of the East-Asia division, Srivastava was also leading the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination for Border Affairs (WMCC) with China after the India-China boundary dispute and crisis in eastern Ladakh.