Diplomat Shivshankar Menon Turns 74; Key Highlights From His Decades Long Career For Proud Indians

The much discussed Indian diplomat and thinker, Shivshankar Menon celebrates his 74th birthday on Wednesday, 5th of July. Here are some interesting key highlights from his much happening career.

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From 2010 to 2014, Menon served as national security advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the UPA government.

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One of the most skilled diplomats, he also served in India’s missions to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Geneva and the United Nations in New York.

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Shivshankar Menon was the 2nd Indian ambassador to Israel and oversaw the beginning of the now flourishing India-Israel defence and intelligence relationship.

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As high commissioner of India to Pakistan, Menon restored high commissioner level relations after a gap of a year and a half and initiated what is so far the best period in the two countries’ relationship.

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Menon served in the Ministry of External Affairs from 1992 to 1995. During the time, he negotiated the first boundary related agreement between India and China. This became the root of the subsequent series of agreements that have maintained peace on the border despite multiple challenges.

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Menon has been a Richard Wilhelm Fellow at the Center for International Studies at MIT and Fisher Family Fellow at the Belfer Center, Harvard University.

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In 2010, he was chosen by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the world’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers.”

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He is the author of “Choices: Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy” published by the Brookings Press and Penguin Random House in 2016. His “India and Asian Geopolitics; The Past, Present” was out in 2021.

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