WASHINGTON: Needless to say, a veteran Indian, also an Indian-American, is returning to the US Embassy in New Delhi for a second term, this time as Charge d’Affaires. And long that they don’t define much of his professional life, but rather expand on both sides of his family over the decades.
A veteran career diplomat who joined the US Foreign Service in 1994, Keshp first served as political counselor in New Delhi from 2005-2008, one of the top advisers to David Mulford, the ambassador for the Citizens’ Power Cooperation Initiative, nuclear power between the United States and India. Two years later, he headed the offices of India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Bhutan in the State of the Office of South and Central Asian Affairs in 2013 before being promoted to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs. .
The position of the Sri Lankan and Maldivian ambassadors to the 2015 Defense came in recognition of nearly a decade in South Asia before returning to the US capital to become vice-chancellor of the National Defense University, the College of International Security at Fort McNair in Washington. DC. On Wednesday, the Biden administration chose him to keep the New Delhi fort to hold the nomination of a full-time ambassador to India. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has been given heavy instructions for the position.
“I am delighted to announce that Ambassador Atul Kesap will soon be coming to USAnd India as Charge d’Affaires. Ambassador Kesap’s wealth will help advance our collective priorities as we work with India to overcome global challenges such as the COVD-19 epidemic, “Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken said in a tweet. Hours later, Keshap himself posted a picture with his mother, Joe Calvert, tweeting: “Before I left for India, I went to my home in Charlottesville to seek my mother’s blessing. She served in the Foreign Service at the US Embassy in New Delhi in 1958-1960.”
Keshap’s parents’ relationship with India from India is deep in the past. His father, Keshav Chandra Sen, was a refugee from Lahore during the Partition era, who faced stiff opposition to graduate from the Delhi School of Economics and later became an international civilian employee working for other ONU organizations.
