New Delhi Appoints India’s Representative To UN, R Ravindra, As Ambassador To Iceland

Announcing this, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a press statement said, “Shri R. Ravindra (IFS:1999), presently Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations at New York, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Iceland and he is expected to take up the assignment shortly.”

Before he joined as representative at the UN in September 2020, Ravindra was Joint Secretary (Central and West Africa) at the MEA in New Delhi.

Previously, he served at the Indian Embassy in Cairo from 2001-2003 and Libya’s Tripoli from 2003-2007. Earlier, he served at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York from 2010-2013 and at the Indian Embassy in Colombo from 2013-2016. He also served as India’s Ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire, with concurrent accreditation to Liberia and Guinea from 2016 to 2018.

Trade Pact With EFTA

The government’s decision to depute a senior diplomat as the mission head in Iceland assumes special significance in light of India signing a Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) with the European Free Trade Association in March this year.

In diplomatic circles, the development is seen as India’s intent to ensure that TEPA is rolled out smoothly to ensure robust investment coming to India from the Scandinavian countries of which Iceland is a major part. The other countries in the group are Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Speaking at the time of signing the agreement, Minister for Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal had said, “TEPA is a modern and ambitious trade agreement. For the first time, India is signing an FTA with four developed nations - an important economic bloc in Europe. For the first time in the history of FTAs, binding commitment of US$ 100 billion investment and 1 million direct jobs over the next 15 years has been given."

Analysts said the agreement will give a boost to 'Make in India' and provide job opportunities to India's workforce. At the same time, the FTA will provide a window to exporters from both sides to access large markets.

Investments from the EFTA nations will focus on manufacturing in areas like chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery, infrastructure and food processing, besides service exports like IT and knowledge processing services. 

India has offered 82.7 per cent of its tariff lines, which covers 95.3 per cent of EFTA exports, to boost bilateral trade. The reductions in customs duty on goods imported from the EFTA countries will help lower prices of imports such as Swiss cheese, chocolate, wine, and other processed food products, along with watches, clocks, etc.

The official said that the EFTA is an important regional group, with several growing opportunities to enhance international trade in goods and services. It is one important economic block out of the three (the other two being the European Union and the United Kingdom) in Europe. Among EFTA countries, Switzerland is the largest trading partner of India followed by Norway.