A week after President Barack Obama visited India to improve a relationship built on shared democratic and multicultural ideologies, an Indian delegate will speak about the nations’ relations at the University of Central Florida.
Meera Shankar, India’s current ambassador to the United States, will speak at UCF Thursday, Nov. 18. Shankar’s presentation, “U.S.-India Relations: An Update,” will begin at 3 p.m. in the Pegasus Ballroom of the Student Union.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of the UCF Office of Global Perspectives’ 2010-2011 India Speakers Series.
Shankar, India’s second female ambassador to the United States, joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1973. She has held several key assignments throughout her career, and has served as director of the prime minister’s office and as a minister of commerce in Washington, D.C.
She moved on to head the Indian Council of Cultural Relations in New Delhi, where she oversaw India’s cultural diplomacy. Subsequently, she worked in the Ministry of External Affairs, where she headed two important divisions that dealt with the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation and relations with Nepal and Bhutan.
Shankar took on the responsibility of the United Nations and International Security after being promoted to the rank of additional secretary in 2002. Her last assignment was ambassador of India to Germany, which she completed in 2009.
Sponsors of the event include the UCF Global Perspectives Office, The India Program at UCF, The Anil and Chitra Deshpande India Program Endowed Fund, UCF Diplomacy Program, Lawrence J. Chastang and the Chastang Foundation, UCF Political Science Department, UCF International Services Center, UCF LIFE and the Global Connections Foundation.