New Delhi

Devesh Uttam has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Ethiopia, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

Uttam, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 2003, is presently Ambassador of India to Lithuania, and has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Ethiopia.

He is expected to take up the assignment shortly.

As per the website of the Indian Embassy in Vilnius, Ambassador Uttam was Head of the Consular, Passport & Visa (CPV) Division in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. He was also in charge of the Office of the Central Authority for Extradition Matters.

His diplomatic assignments abroad included Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of India, Tehran; and Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in New York. While in New York, he was also elected to serve as a Member of the United Nations Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) from 2013 to 2016.

He also served as India's representative on the Advisory Board of the UN Democracy Fund during his tenure in New York. Besides, he has also served in Indian Missions in Libya and Syria. He headed the Political and Commercial wings at the Embassy of India, Tripoli and the Culture and Information wing at the Embassy of India, Damascus

At the Ministry of External Affairs, besides Joint Secretary, CPV Division, he has served in different Capacities including Director (Administration) and Under Secretary / Deputy Secretary (Gulf).

Before joining the Indian Foreign Service, he served as Assistant Director General of Foreign Trade in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.

READ MORE: Bisu Limbu of Assam studied under kerosene lamp to crack NEET

He holds Master's and M.Phil. degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His area of research in M.Phil. was the "Eastern Enlargement of the European Union". The focus of the study was the cost-benefit analysis for new Member States joining the EU. He has also studied International Business at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi. He speaks Hindi, English and Arabic. He has also studied French and Sanskrit.