Prof Phunchok Stobdan named Ambassador to Kyrgzstan

Prof. Phunchok Stobdan

Prof Phunchok Stobdan, an expert on Central Asia, among other areas, has been appointed as India's next Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, the Ministry of External Affairs said today.

A statement from the Ministry said Prof Stobdan, a senior fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) here, would succeed Mr J S Pande. He is expected to take up his assignment shortly.

In a separate announcement, the Ministry said Mr Devendra Nath Srivastava would be the country's next Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo. He will succeed Mr H V S Manral.

Prof Stobdan is regarded as an expert on issues concerning national and international security with specific focus on Asian affairs covering Central Asia and Inner Asia, including Xinjiang, Tibet, Myanmar and the Himalayan region. He has written extensively on security-related subjects in professional journals on strategic affairs, books and newspapers in India and abroad.

Between 1999 and 2002, he had served as Director of the Indian Cultural Centre at the Embassy of India in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He has also worked as Joint Director in the National Security Council and between October 2006 and November 2007 as Director of the Centre for Strategic and Regional Studies at the University of Jammu.

NNN