NEW DELHI: Veteran diplomat Abhay Thakur, a key member of the team that guided negotiations during India’s G20 presidency last year, was on Tuesday named the new ambassador to Myanmar.

Thakur, an officer from the 1992 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and currently an officer on special duty in the external affairs ministry, is expected to take up the assignment shortly, an official announcement said.

He will replace Vinay Kumar who was appointed the new ambassador to Russia last week.

Thakur, who was India’s G20 sous sherpa or the deputy to the sherpa, has served as the high commissioner to Mauritius and Nigeria. He has also had stints in the Indian missions in key world capitals such as Moscow, London and Tel Aviv. An engineer-turned-diplomat, he studied at the Indian Institute of Management-Mumbai.

He will have the challenging task of dealing with Myanmar’s military regime at a time when the junta has suffered a series of humiliating defeats following the launch of an offensive last October by the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which includes the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).

The armed resistance groups and other anti-junta forces have captured key trade and crossing points on Myanmar’s borders with India and China and overrun scores of military posts and bases.

India has expressed concern at the violence and instability in Myanmar following the 2021 coup by the junta and called for the complete cessation of fighting and a transition towards an inclusive and federal democracy.

The Indian government has suspended the Free Movement Regime for people living along the India-Myanmar border and decided to completely fence the 1,643-km frontier after thousands of Myanmar citizens, including military personnel, entered Manipur and Mizoram to escape the fighting.