India’s new ambassador to US confirmed by Trump in Oval Office credentials ceremony

India’s ambassador-designate to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, was confirmed in the position after presenting his diplomatic credentials to President Donald Trump at a ceremony in Washington.

President Trump welcomed the career foreign service official back to the US capital on Thursday, wishing Sandhu success in his duties as ambassador and “fondly recalling” his friendship with this Indian counterpart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian Embassy said in a statement.

Observing that the two leaders had moved New Delhi and Washington closer together, Sandhu said he was committed to strengthening a “strategic partnership” based on “mutual trust and friendship, democratic values and people-to-people ties.”

Sandhu began his diplomatic career in the 1980s at the Indian Embassy in the former Soviet Union, and later served as Deputy Chief of Mission in the US between 2013 and 2017.