sikhpride

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It was a great moment of pride for all the Indians, Sikhs in particular, when Australian Foreign Affair Minister Julie Bishop announced that an Indian origin Australian Harinder Sidhu will be the next High Commissioner to India. Ms. Sidhu was born in Singapore and she was just a child when her father migrated his family to Australia. She studied and got her Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Economics degrees from the University of Sydney. After that she joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She remained First Assistant Secretary of the Multilateral Policy Division, First Assistant Secretary in the Department of Climate Change, Assistant Director-General in the Office of National Assessments and Senior Adviser in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. She further served overseas in Moscow and Damascus. After taking over the charge as Australia’s High Commissioner in India, she also has non-resident accreditation to Bhutan. She expressed her happiness over this appointment as she remembers that her parents were born in Punjab. She is fond of Indian movies, cricket and visiting different parts of this country of her parents. She looks forward to improve further the relation between the two countries on political, social and economic fronts. In her words “India is one of the most exciting places for a diplomat to be at the moment. India’s economic prospects are bright and it is becoming a more influential and active international player,” she said. “The Australia-India relationship has grown substantially over the past few years and I will dedicate myself to building that relationship further”. “At a personal level, I have always been fascinated by the country of my heritage and am keen to learn more about India – its language, culture and history – while I am there.” Let us pray that she proves herself a role model and succeeds in strengthening the relations between the two countries.