R. Ravindra appointed as Ambassador To Iceland

The Ministry of external affairs (MEA) has appointed Mr. R. Ravindran as the next ambassador to Iceland. He was a bureaucrat and served at many organizations and places.

Who is he?

• R. Ravindran was an Indian foreign service officer of batch 1999 and is currently serving as India’s Deputy permanent representative at the United Nations.
• He is expected to join soon at the office, stated by MEA.
• He will succeed Mr B. Shyam as an ambassador to Iceland.

Career

• Served at the Indian embassy in Cairo from 2001-03.
• In Libya’s Tripoli from 2004 to 2007.
• He also served as India’s regional passport officer from 2007 to 2010 in Bengaluru.
• Also at India’s embassy in Colombo and Cote d’Ivoire he served for the nation

Career at UN

• He served at India’s Permanent Mission at New York USA from 2010-13.
• After that he joined as Deputy Permanent representative at the United Nations from September 2020.

How will this be useful?

• This decision to appoint a senior diplomat as the mission head, will help the Government of India’s European free trade agreement. 
• As India aims to ensure a smooth rollout of European free trade agreement to ensure robust investment flows into India from Scandinavian countries of which Iceland is a major part. Other countries in the group are Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway.