New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS): The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday appointed Arun Kumar Chatterjee as the next Indian Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan.

"Shri Arun Kumar Chatterjee, presently Additional Secretary in the Ministry, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Kyrgyz Republic. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly," the MEA said in a statement.

Chatterjee is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) official of 1992 batch. Presently, he is serving in the MEA headquarters here as an Additional Secretary. He also assumed additional charge as Dean at the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service (SSIFS) in September last year.

Chatterjee had previously served as the Counsellor in the India Embassy in Seoul from February 2006 to July 2007, as First Secretary/Counsellor in Permanent Mission of India (PMI), Geneva ,from December 2002 to December 2005, and as Third/Second Secretary in the Embassy of India, Almaty, Kazakhstan, from May 1994 to September 1998.

In the MEA, Chatterjee has worked as Under Secretary/ Deputy Secretary (East Europe), Director (Finance), Director/Joint Secretary (CNV & I), Chief Vigilance Officer, Joint/Additional Secretary (Passport Seva Project) and Chief Passport Officer from April 2016 to November 2020.

His compulsory foreign language is Kazakh, while he also has working knowledge of Russian and French.