Argentine Envoy Wishes P Kumaran on New Role as India’s UK High Commissioner

"Greetings and best wishes to Secretary East Ambassador Shri P. Kumaran in his new post as Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. It was a pleasure working with him and his team during his tenure over the past year, during which we were able to further strengthen the bilateral link between our countries," the Argentine envoy said in a post on X.

Periasamy Kumaran, a 1992-batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service, has held several key diplomatic assignments across regions. His early postings included Cairo, Tripoli and Brussels between 1994 and 2003, followed by a stint at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi as Deputy Secretary (Europe West).

He later served as Regional Passport Officer in Bengaluru and was posted to Islamabad as Counsellor, before taking up assignments in Washington and Colombo. Between 2014 and 2016, he served as Joint Secretary in the Consular, Passport and Visa Division at the MEA.

Kumaran went on to serve as Ambassador of India to Qatar from 2016 to 2020, his first ambassadorial role, and later as High Commissioner of India to Singapore from 2020 to 2023. In July 2023, he returned to New Delhi as Additional Secretary in charge of Economic Relations and Development Partnership Administration, and was subsequently promoted to Special Secretary in the same division.

He assumed charge as Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs on April 1, 2025, before his latest appointment to the United Kingdom.

Kumaran holds a BTech in Electronics and Communication from IIT Madras and is fluent in English, Tamil, Hindi and Arabic. He is married to Ritu Kumaran and the couple has two sons.

In his recent role, Kumaran represented India at key regional forums, including the East Asia Summit Senior Officials' Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum Senior Officials' Meeting held in Penang, Malaysia.

According to an earlier statement from the Ministry of External Affairs, he highlighted the role of the East Asia Summit in promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and stressed convergence between India's Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.

He also raised concerns over state-sponsored terrorism, referring to the recent attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, and said India's response under "Operation Sindoor" was "measured, non-escalatory, proportionate and responsible."

- ANI