Tellis could be next US envoy to India

New Delhi : Mumbai-born Ashley Tellis could be appointed next US Ambassador to India by US President-elect Donald Trump, if media reports emanating from Washington are to be believed.The choice of Tellis will be a pleasant one for many in the Indian establishment here. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar worked closely with Tellis during the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement. Tellis was then senior adviser to the state department’s under-secretary of state for political affairs during the nuclear negotiations. Tellis is currently working as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington based think-tank. He has written extensively on India and is the author of books like India’s Emerging Nuclear Posture (2001) and Interpreting China’s Grand Strategy: Past, Present, and Future (2000).
Another name that is doing the rounds for the coveted post is that of Shalabh Kumar. He launched the Republican Hindu Coalition in November 2015 and is known to have contributed at least a million dollars to the Trump campaign.
Sources said Kumar was responsible for arranging two significant meetings — one of foreign secretary Jaishankar with Vice President-elect Mike Pence and another between National Security Adviser Ajit Doval with the NSA-designate Michaeil Flynn.