Ashok Sajjanhar

ASHOK SAJJANHAR

Secretary, National Foundation for Communal Harmony


Paper Title: ''Peace and Development - The Indian Experience''

Abstract
Ambassador Ashok Sajjanhar, Secretary, National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH) is a career diplomat and has served as Ambassador of India to Kazakhstan, Sweden and Latvia. He has also held several significant positions in Indian Embassies in Washington, Moscow, Brussels, Geneva, Bangkok, Teheran and Dhaka. He negotiated for India in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations. A keen proponent of Indian culture, he was the Director of Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Centre in Moscow where he was instrumental in ushering in a new paradigm in cultural diplomacy. The US-India Nuclear Deal was signed by PM Dr. Manmohan Singh and President Bush during Ambassador Sajjanhar’s term in Washington in 2005. The EU-India Strategic Partnership as well as negotiations for EU-India Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement were launched during his tenure in Brussels.

Currently Ambassador Sajjanhar is President, Institute of Global Studies; Visiting Professor at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development, Chandigarh; and Member, Governing Board of Sanskriti Educational Foundation, Indian Institute of Law and Management, VPMs Centre of International Studies, and several others.