WASHINGTON: Former foreign secretary and national security advisor Shivshankar Menon has joined the prestigious American think-tank Brookings Institute.
Menon will serve within the Foreign Policy programme at Brookings, a statement said today.
"We are honoured that Ambassador Menon will join Brookings as a Distinguished Fellow," Brookings president Strobe Talbott said.
"He has served his nation in many ways, earning the respect and admiration of those who have had the pleasure of working with him on many of the major international issues of our era," he said.
Menon currently serves as chairman of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi.
He has been a Richard Wilhelm Fellow at MIT and Fisher Family Fellow at Harvard University.
He served as national security advisor to the Prime Minister of India from January 2010 to May 2014, and previously as foreign secretary of India from October 2006 to August 2009.
He has served as ambassador and high commissioner of India to Israel (1995-1997), Sri Lanka (1997-2000), China (2000-2003), and Pakistan (2003-2006).
He was also a member of India's Atomic Energy Commission (2008-2014).
A career diplomat, he also served in India's missions to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Geneva and the United Nations in New York.
During his service in the Ministry of External Affairs from 1992 to 1995, Menon negotiated the first boundary related agreement between the India and China, the root of the subsequent series of agreements that have maintained peace on the border despite ongoing disputes.
Menon was also a special representative of the prime minister on the boundary issue from 2010 to 2014, and has dealt with the India-China boundary and India-China relations since 1974.
Menon was the second ambassador of India to Israel from 1995 to 1997, and oversaw the beginning of the now flourishing India-Israel defense and intelligence relationship.