Senior diplomat Pavan Kapoor has been appointed India’s ambassador to strategically important Israel, where he will succeed Jaideep Sarkar. Mr Kapoor, a 1990 batch Indian Foreign Service Officer, is currently India’s High Commissioner in Mozambique capital Maputo. The appointment assumes significance as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to visit India this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi may also pay a return visit to Tel Aviv.

Mr Kapoor, an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, also a has a Master’s degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics. In his diplomatic career of two decades, he has served in different capacities in the Indian Missions in Moscow, London, Geneva and Kiev apart from serving in the Ministry of External Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office. He has also done a stint at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London as Political Adviser on Asia and Europe.

India is Israel’s largest buyer of military hardware. Israel has supplied various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years but the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains.