Indian-American Atul Keshap has been appointed as the United States (US) Ambassador to Maldives and Sri Lanka.
With this appointment he became the second Indian-origin US diplomat to be posted as Ambassador to the region after Richard Rahul Verma (US Ambassador to India).
Presently he is working as Deputy Assistant Secretary of US in South and Central Asian Affairs in the Bureau of State Department. He is a former official of US Embassy in India.
About Atul Keshap
- Keshap was born in Nigeria in June, 1971.
- His father Keshap Chander Sen who was a UN development economist working in Nigeria hailed from Punjab. His mother, Zoe Calvert, was in the US Foreign Service.
- Diplomat Career: Keshap had joined the US Foreign Service in 1994. From 2005 to 2008, he had served as the deputy political counsellor at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.
- He also had served as special assistant for the North Africa, Middle East and South Asia for the under-secretary of state for political affairs.
- In 2003, he was appointed as director for Middle Eastern and North African regional affairs on the National Security Council in the White House.
- From 2008 to 2010, he also had served as the Director for UN Human Rights in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.