He replaces Shyam Saran, who has been designated as India's special envoy for the Indo-US nuclear deal.
A first look of the Foreign Secretary's meeting with Rice.
Menon retired as Foreign Secretary in August, ending a career marked him out as one of India's best bureaucrats to hold the post. The fact that he superseded 12 seniors to be appointed to the post in 2006 when his equally capable predecessor Shyam Saran retired has more than paid off.
But India's outgoing foreign secretary should not be judged solely on what happened at Sharm El Sheikh.
Menon will present his credentials to President Pervez Musharraf after he returns from his three-nation tour. Musharraf is scheduled to reach Islamabad on Saturday from Rabat.
An image of the Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries in New Delhi.
After the half-an-hour meeting Monday evening, Menon said that they discussed the reform proposals in UN but did not elaborate.
India and Pakistan are expected to tale up issues like terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir besides confidence building measures.
Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon arrived in the United States on two-day visit to the US with a series of scheduled meetings including with officials at the State Department, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns.
Menon's visit follows serious concern expressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over renewed violence in the island's embattled regions.
Menon was in Colombo to discuss the ethnic strife with the President.
Indian Foreign Secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon will arrive in Washington on Sunday and will be holding meetings with top Obama Administration officials on a wide range of bilateral and regional issues. Taking the Indo-US relationship to the next level - from what was accomplished during the Bush Administration - is going to be the main focus of this first high-level Indo-US interaction after Barack Obama was sworn in as the USPresident on January 20.
Menon said the current global economic crisis figured prominently during his meetings with officials of the Obama administration and congressional leaders in his trip to Washington.
The situation in Sri Lanka, where thousands of Tamil civilians are trapped in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's strongholds, permeated the 45-minute discussion on Monday between United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. This was the first high-level interaction between India and the Obama administration in Washington.
Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Wednesday briefed Congress Members of Parliament about various aspects of the Indo-Pak joint statement issued at Sharm-el Sheikh, hours ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention on the issue in Parliament. Menon briefed a group of party MPs from both the Houses on the technical details of the statement so that they were aware of all the details of the communique before the discussion on the issue, sources said.
On the eve of the Nuclear Suppliers Group's extraordinary plenary meeting to decide on nuclear commerce with India, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon will brief the current chair Germany and two other key members of the 45-nation NSG.
India on Friday described as "constructive and useful" the two-day meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group in the run-up to securing a clean exemption for conducting international nuclear commerce.
Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said in New Delhi that, "Both India and Russia are keen to expand nuclear cooperation. All the preparatory work has been done." He was inaugurating an international conference on "Changing Patterns of Indo-Russian Cooperation" organised by the Observer Research Foundation. He said that India and Russia already have an "excellent relationship" and India considers relations with Russia very important.
On the eve of the first high-level talks between India and the new Obama Administration in Washington, with the arrival of Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, who will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior US officials later today (Monday), outgoing Ambassador Ronen Sen has dismissed concerns over the momentum of the relationship under the new dispensation in DC.
India on Friday said it was confident of the passage of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal as it enjoyed bipartisan support among lawmakers, assuring that American firms would not be put at a disadvantage even if there is delay in getting a Congressional nod for the accord.
Accusing "elements" in Pakistan for the suicide attack on Indian mission in Kabul, India Monday made it clear that the recent spate of terror attacks and ceasefire violations triggered from across the border have put the peace process "under stress". In some tough-talking, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon told his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir that these concerns of New Delhi must be addressed.
Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, who wrapped up three days of intensive discussions with the hierarchy of the new Obama administration at the State Department, White House, and Pentagon, and also met with the leadership in the US Congress, apparently has every reason to be satisfied that the transformed US-India relationship is ready to be launched to the next level of the partnership.
According to a source in government, "We have three pieces of evidence right now of the involvement of people based in Pakistan. One is the satellite phone through which calls were made to Pakistan from Mumbai. Two, the interrogation statement of the captured terrorist has lots of details which will help demolish Pakistan's claims that there are no terrorist camps inside Pakistan. Three, the dead bodies of nine terrorists and the proof of identity found on them."
Was that an invitation or a signal that the process of regular interactions between foreign secretaries, home secretaries, director generals of military intelligence will be back on track is anybody's guess.
India on Friday urged the Sri Lankan government to cease its offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and declare a truce in the conflict zone. The Centre also rushed National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon to Colombo to step up its diplomatic pressure.The decision was taken at a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, both former ambassadors to Beijing, prevailed over the dominant view of the Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorjee, being a "pro-China asset in India", reports RS Chauhan
Speaking to media persons aboard Air India 001, conveying Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Moscow, Menon said, "This is one relationship without any wrinkles or difficulties." The foreign secretary was reacting to an inquiry whether Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's refusal to meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the latter's visit to Moscow last month.
Menon said he would not like to jump to any conclusion as to which terrorist group was behind the Jaipur bomb blasts. Asked if the government of India was taken by surprise by the series of bomb blasts that shook Jaipur on Tuesday night particularly when it came after firing from across the border from the Pakistani Rangers and the killing of innocent persons in Samba sector in Jammu resign, the foreign secretary said that peace and security would be high on the agenda.
Sujatha Singh stands for the right values and quite simply, she's a "good person" who understands complex economic issues thoroughly, say her friends.
India and the United States have "not signed" the End User Monitoring Agreement, said Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday
Though the main focus of talks between Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir is on peace and security, Jammu and Kashmir and CBMs, other issues like release of prisoners, visa relaxation, trade and commerce will also come up for discussions.
"We want to take relations forward," Menon said in his opening remarks.
"Bilateral talks usually focus on a broad range of issues: from the crucial international problems, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and response to international terrorism, to the coordination of the working issues of bilateral cooperation."
Pakistan said on Thursday that India should help it investigate the Mumbai attacks instead of accusing the country's institutions of being involved in the terrorist incident.
India will hand over 'some' evidence about ISI involvement in the bomb explosions and has made it clear that it would put Pakistan to the 'test' to determine how it cooperates in the fight against terrorism.
Significantly, the meeting between Menon and Burns on Tuesday will take place 10 days after senior officials from the two sides met in the South African city of Cape Town.
Mumbai police on September 30 said the explosions were planned by Inter Services Intelligence and executed by activists of the banned Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Students Islamic Movement of India in New Delhi.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances