Senior diplomat Navdeep Singh Suri was on Monday appointed Ambassador to United Arab Emirates, a strategically important nation country which is major supplier of oil to India and is home to around 2.6 million-strong Indians.
Suri, a 1983 batch Indian Foreign Service official, is expected to take up the assignment shortly, the External Affairs Ministry said.
He is currently serving as Indian High Commissioner in Canberra.
Suri had served in India's diplomatic missions in Cairo, Damascus, Washington, Dar es Salaam and London and as India's Consul General in Johannesburg.
He has also headed the West Africa and Public Diplomacy divisions at the Ministry of External Affairs. He was India's Ambassador to Egypt prior to his posting to Canberra.
UAE is a strategically important country for India in the Gulf region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had paid a visit to UAE in August last year during which both sides had decided to significantly expand bilateral ties, particularly in areas of trade and investment.
