Tellis is currently a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The United States might very well send another Indian American as its top envoy in New Delhi, according to a report.
Quoting “transition sources,” The Washington Post wrote on Sunday that “Trump is close to selecting Ashley Tellis, a former White House official and renowned India expert, to be the next U.S. ambassador to India.”
The current ambassador, Indian American Richard Verma, will be demitting office next week.
Tellis, an Indian American who has years of experience managing strategic positions in the US Government, is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.
Mumbai-born Tellis is a graduate of the University of Bombay. He has served in key positions such as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the National Security Council for Strategic Planning and Southwest Asia, senior adviser to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, and senior adviser to the US Ambassador to India.
Born and studied in India, Tellis was involved in many bilateral talks with India and the US, notably among them being the civil nuclear agreement signed by the two countries. He has also penned many books, including India’s Emerging Nuclear Posture, Strategic Asia 2016-2017: Understanding Strategic Cultures in the Asia-Pacific and Getting India Back on Track: An Action Agenda for Reform (2014).
Tellis is currently a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Tellis has a postgraduate and doctoral degree from the University of Chicago. He is specialized in international security, defense, and Asia strategic issues.
Previously, Tellis was commissioned into the Foreign Service and served as senior adviser to the ambassador at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi. He also served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia.
Tellis has been actively analyzing the future of US-India relationship in the context of the election of Trump as the new White House inmate. He appeared in an interview conducted by Live Mint where he said India should further stretch its agenda to be included in Nuclear Supplier’s Group (NSG). He also said that the Indian Government should act proactively to amend the existing liability law in order to safeguard its own domestic nuclear industry and suppliers.
While talking about the trade relation between US and India, Tellis said it has been one of the disappointments and remains to be a weakness in US-India relationship. When talking about the US relationship with Pakistan Tellis said, the US will not hesitate from taking harsher stands even though it might turn out to be unfavorable for Pakistan.
Interestingly, Tellis is not the greatest of supporters of Trump as he called Trump “erratic†and said his unpredictability makes the future of US-India relationship even more unpredictable.
Tellis during the interview with Livemint said “Hopefully, the US will not ever enjoy a Trump presidency… it is simply impossible to predict what President Trump would mean for US-India relations or for that matter any other issue. Trump is incredibly erratic in the way he approaches the world and that seems to be his distinctive personality trait.â€
In the course of the interview, Tellis said that Trump has little knowledge about policy issues and there is no information as of now about the billionaire turned businessman’s wisdom on issues like US-India bilateral relationship thus causing uncertainties.
It seems like Tellis ’s sharp criticism of Trump has not overshadowed his merits to be appointed as the next US Ambassador to India.
The Trump transition team has already set January 20 as the deadline for all Obama-appointed diplomats to resign from their diplomatic positions so that the new administration can appoint its candidates to fill the vacancies.
The transition team has made it clear that under no circumstances should any Obama-appointed envoys continue on their jobs in foreign countries, and it was passed to the 294 US Embassies as a directive from Obama administration in last December.
Usually, diplomats get a grace period before leaving their office, particularly if they have school-going children. But this time, the directive is clear that all politically appointed diplomats, “without exceptions,†should leave their office by January 20.
This post was update at 5:16 pm EST.