Neeta Bhushan Takes Charge as India’s Diplomatic Representative to Poland

New Delhi [India]: Neeta Bhushan, a 1994-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, has been named India’s new ambassador to Poland.

She is now working as India’s High Commissioner to New Zealand and will take up the position shortly.

India and Poland have a long-standing friendly relationship, distinguished by high-level political meetings and active commercial engagement. Diplomatic relations began in 1954, and the Indian Embassy in Warsaw opened in 1957. The two countries shared similar ideological perspectives based on their opposition to colonialism, imperialism, and racism.

During the Communist era, bilateral relations were close and cordial, with regular high-level visits (several VVIP visits from India, beginning with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1955, and four from Poland), as well as planned trade and economic interactions by state trading organisations, backed up by rupee clearing arrangements. After Poland adopted democracy in 1989, the friendship remained close.

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As both economies developed in size and heft, India and Poland adopted hard currency trading arrangements that were supported by expanding amounts of trade. A warm political connection has formed in the twenty-first century, particularly when Poland entered the European Union in 2004 and became India’s primary economic partner in Central Europe.

Over the years, India and Poland have had many encounters at the Heads of State and Government levels. Presidents V V Giri (1970), Zail Singh (1986), and S D Sharma (1996) have all visited Poland, as have Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru (1955), Indira Gandhi (1967), and Morarji Desai (1979). High-level visits from Poland have included Presidents Alexander Kwasniewski (1998), Lech Walesa (1994 and 1998), Prime Ministers Cyrankieweicz (1957) and Jaroszewicz (1973), Polish United Workers’ Party First Secretary Gierek (1977), and Gen Jaruszelski (1985).

Following Poland’s democratic transition in 1990, high-level contacts continued with visits by Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski (1998) and Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller (2003). Pratibha Patil, the President of India, visited Poland in April 2009, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk conducted a state visit to India in September 2010.

Some details for Neeta Bhushan

She attended Delhi Public School in R.K. Puram and earned an Economics (Honours) degree from Hindu College, Delhi University. She also holds an M.Phil. degree from Madras University. Her Research Thesis was on “WTO: Glorious Past, Turbulent Present and Uncertain Future”.

She is married to Mr. Anurag Bhushan, a diplomat in India’s Ministry of External Affairs. They have both a son and a daughter.

Prior to her appointment as High Commissioner of India in Wellington, she served as Additional Secretary for Central Europe.