New Delhi [India], May 15 (ANI): Anurag Bhushan, presently serving as Additional Secretary in the Ministry, has been appointed India's next Ambassador to Sweden, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

Bhushan is an Indian Foreign Service Officer of the 1995 batch. According to the MEA statement, he is expected to take up the assignment shortly.

In a statement, MEA said, 'Shri Anurag Bhushan (IFS: 1995), presently Additional Secretary in the Ministry, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Sweden.

'He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,' it added.

India and Sweden have longstanding close relations based on common values, strong business, investment, and R&D linkages, and similar approaches to meeting global challenges of peace, security, and development, according to the Indian Embassy in Sweden.

Regular political engagement, intensifying business ties, cooperation on global challenges and multilateral issues define the strong partnership between India and Sweden. Innovation, Technology, Investment and R&D collaborations provide the bedrock of this modern relationship.

The ties between India and Sweden have witnessed a sharp upswing in the high-level engagement since 2014, with 11 visits/ interactions at the Head of State/Head of Government level during this period.

This includes eight interactions at Prime Ministerial level (September 2015 New York; February 2016 Make in India Mumbai; April 2018 Stockholm; April 2020 telephone conversation; March 2021 Virtual Summit; May 2021 India EU Summit; Nov 2021 on the sidelines of COP26 in Glasgow, May 2022 Copenhagen 2nd India-Nordic summit, Dec 2023 on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai, the visit of then-President Pranab Mukherjee to Sweden in May-June 2015 and the visit of King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf to India in December 2019

There have been 1 PM-level interaction and around 25 ministerial interactions in 2023-25, according to the Indian Embassy in Sweden. Prime Ministers of two nations met in three different formats during COP28, where they also jointly launched Leadit2.0. (ANI)