Meet Reenat Sandhu, India's New Ambassador To The Netherlands

Senior diplomat Reenat Sandhu has been appointed as the new ambassador for India to the Netherlands. Before her, the position was held by Pradeep Kumar, who will now be India's next ambassador to China. This announcement was made by the Ministry of External Affairs recently.

While announcing the news of her appointment, the MEA also shared that Sandhu is Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1989 batch. Currently, Sandhu is serving as Secretary (West) in the MEA. The ministry in a brief statement said, "She is expected to take up the assignment shortly."

Sandhu met with the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Vershnin on February 1. After the consultations on UNSC matters between them, Vershnin said, "It is premature to talk about recognising the current government in Kabul." He said that both India and Russia have the same stances on Afghanistan. While briefing at the first India-Central Asia Summit,  Sandhu had further said, "The evolving situation in Afghanistan and its impact on the security and stability of the region were discussed in detail at India-Central Asia Summit meeting. The leaders reiterated strong support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan."

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Who is Reenat Sandhu?

Sandhu is a post-graduate in economics from the Delhi School of Economics. Over her career span, most of her work trade and commerce. She is married to Ambassador and the High Commissioner of India for Colombo Taranjit Singh Sandhu and has two children.

Born on June 7, 1964, she began her career in IFS in 1989 and was ambassador to Italy and San Marino from 2017 to 2020. Before that, she has served as Minister (Commerce)/ Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC between 2014 and 2017.

She was the Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the WTO in Geneva. Other than these, she has served in different roles representing India in Moscow, Kyiv, New York and Colombo.

She became the Secretary (West) in MEA on July 1, 2021, and continues to be so.