An IFS officer of 2002 batch, JP Singh has been designated as the following Indian ambassador to Israel. He is expected to take up his new assignment shortly, the MEA said in an announcement.
Currently, Singh is headed as Joint Secretary of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran (PAI) MEA Division. He has previously served as deputy chief of mission in Islamabad and is considered an expert on issues related to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Singh has also served in Kabul. As joint secretary, he played the lead role in India’s outreach to the Taliban after the armed militia took control of Afghanistan again in 2021 and has visited Kabul several times in recent years. These efforts eventually led to Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri meeting with the Taliban’s acting foreign minister recently in Dubai, in a sign of India’s improving ties with the dispensation in Kabul.
Singh has also served as the Consul General of India in Istanbul. He will lead the Indian mission in Israel amid spikes in resentment in tensions in West Asia that followed the war in Gaza. In a balancing act, India has continued to strongly defend Israel’s right to defend itself from acts of terrorism while condemning the deaths of innocent civilians.