Rao is new Foreign Secy,Menon may go to PMO

Though not a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker,her expertise on China stems from the fact that she had a long stint of eight years — from July 1984 to August 1992,she climbed the ladder from deputy secretary to director before finally being the joint secretary — on the East Asia desk,which handles China,Japan and Korea.

The experience came in handy for her when she was posted as the Indian envoy in Beijing in October 2006,and one of the most memorable diplomatic encounters took place in recent times when she was called to the Chinese Foreign Ministry at 2 am in March last year at the height of the Tibetan protests in India.

During her stint on the China desk,she had worked on the Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to China in 1988,which is described as an ice-breaker when joint working group on boundary dispute was set up. Rao is said to be well versed on India-China border issues.

More than 20 years after this visit,as China is being widely referred to as the “New China” — making fresh claims on the border — Rao’s diplomatic skills will be tested once again at the highest level.

Rao,who becomes only the second woman Foreign Secretary after Chokila Iyer’s brief stint in 2001,has served in Washington and Moscow as well. She has also served in Colombo as the Ambassador for two years (2004-2006) and had been the first woman spokesperson in the MEA between June 2001 and October 2002.