New Delhi [India], February 2 (ANI): Nagma Mohamed Mallick, from the IFS batch of 1991, presently Ambassador of India to Japan, has been concurrently accredited as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Marshall Islands, with residence in Tokyo.
She is expected to take up the assignment shortly.
India was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) in April 1995.
India and RMI share warm bilateral relations encompassing a wide range of areas including blue economy, climate change, disaster preparedness, health, education, and renewable energy.
RMI had criticized India’s nuclear tests in 1998, but this was largely driven by their own unpleasant memory of Bikini Atoll where the US conducted 67 nuclear tests in 1950s (even today, inhabitants of Bikini Atoll suffer from various kinds of cancers and the soil is so heavily polluted that no form of agriculture is possible).
In April 2014, RMI brought a lawsuit in the international Court of Justice against the nine nuclear-armed countries, including India.
However, there has not been any attempt to raise this issue at bilateral level with India. India’s relations with the RMI are covered from Japan with the Indian Ambassador to Japan being concurrently accredited to the RMI.
Hororary Consul General of India in RMI Ramona Levy Strauss was appointed on May 11, 2021.
Former President of RMI Kesai Note visited India over a decade ago, as a member of an inter-parliamentary delegation (in his then capacity as the Speaker of the Parliament). RMI’s Minister for Public Works Hiroshi Yamamura, accompanied by Jemi Nashion, CEO, Tobolar Copra Processing Authority of RMI, visited Kochi from 3-5 February 2015 for the Asia Pacific Coconut Community Session/Ministerial Meeting.
Former RMI Ambassador Tom D Kijiner (residence in Tokyo) presented his credentials to President Shri Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on March 18, 2015. (ANI)