Senior diplomat Devesh Uttam, a 2003-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to Ethiopia. He is currently India’s Ambassador to the Republic of Lithuania and is expected to take up the new assignment shortly. Uttam succeeds Anil Kumar Rai, a 2001-batch IFS officer who has served in Addis Ababa since 2024.
Who Is Devesh Uttam?
A career diplomat born on 1 August 1974 in Uttar Pradesh, Uttam entered the Ministry of Commerce and Industry as Assistant Director General of Foreign Trade before joining the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 2003. He holds Master’s and M.Phil. degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, where his research focused on the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union, and has also studied international business at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT).
His overseas postings span three continents. He served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of India in Tehran and as Counsellor at India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, where he was elected to the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) from 2013 to 2016. Earlier assignments took him to the Indian missions in Libya and Syria, where he headed the political and commercial wings in Tripoli and the culture and information wing in Damascus.
At the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) headquarters in New Delhi, Uttam served as Joint Secretary in charge of the Consular, Passport and Visa (CPV) Division, an office that handles the citizen-facing consular work of the ministry. He also oversaw the office of the Central Authority for Extradition Matters and earlier handled portfolios including Director (Administration) and Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary for the Gulf. He was appointed India’s Ambassador to Lithuania in 2023, a posting he is now leaving for Ethiopia. He speaks Hindi, English and Arabic, with working knowledge of French and Sanskrit.
A Crucial Posting at a Pivotal Moment
The Addis Ababa mission is among the most strategically significant in India’s Africa network. On 16 and 17 December 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first bilateral visit to Ethiopia and elevated the relationship to a Strategic Partnership. During that visit, the two countries signed eight agreements and MoUs covering customs cooperation, a data centre at Ethiopia’s foreign ministry, UN peacekeeping training, debt restructuring under the G20 Common Framework, expanded ICCR scholarships, AI training courses, and maternal and newborn healthcare. Prime Minister Modi also received the Great Honor Nishan of Ethiopia, the country’s highest civilian award.
The outgoing envoy, Anil Kumar Rai, took charge in Addis Ababa in February 2024 and has also served as India’s Permanent Representative to the African Union. Under his watch, a defence cooperation MoU was signed in 2025 and the December 2025 summit agreements were negotiated. Uttam now inherits the task of translating the Strategic Partnership into concrete results across trade, technology, health and defence.
Ethiopia: The Seat of the African Union
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is Africa’s second-most populous country and hosts the headquarters of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa. This makes it the meeting point of continental diplomacy, where India’s engagement with all 55 AU member states is anchored. India’s G20 Presidency in 2023 helped secure the African Union’s permanent membership in the G20, and India’s Africa strategy increasingly runs through Addis Ababa.
India–Ethiopia Ties: Two Millennia of Contact
The relationship between the two countries is among the oldest continuous contacts between the Indian subcontinent and Africa. Recorded trade dates back more than 2,000 years, to the time of the Axumite Empire (first century AD), when Indian traders exchanged silk and spices for gold and ivory through the ancient port of Adulis. In the 16th century, Indians from Goa accompanied the Portuguese army that aided the Christian King of Ethiopia against invaders, and large contingents of Indian soldiers fought as part of British forces that ended Italy’s occupation of the country from 1936 to 1941.
Modern ties began soon after India’s independence, when a goodwill mission led by Sardar Sant Singh was sent to Ethiopia. Diplomatic relations at legation level were established in 1948 and raised to full ambassadorial level in 1950, with Sant Singh as the first Indian Ambassador. Ethiopia was also the first African country to open an embassy in New Delhi. During the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie, tens of thousands of Indian teachers worked in Ethiopian schools, including in remote rural areas, building enduring goodwill that survives to this day.
The Relationship in Numbers
Economic ties are now deep and growing. India is the second-largest trading partner of Ethiopia, with total bilateral trade of about $550 million in FY 2024-25. India’s exports, worth about $477 million, are dominated by iron and steel, pharmaceuticals, machinery, chemicals and plastics, while India imports pulses, flax yarn, leather, spices and precious stones from Ethiopia. India runs a strong trade surplus in this relationship.
Investment tells a similar story. More than 675 Indian companies are registered with the Ethiopian Investment Commission, with total investments crossing $6.5 billion, concentrated in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and textiles, and creating over 75,000 local jobs. India is among the top three foreign investors in Ethiopia. A Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement signed in 2007 and a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement of 2011 underpin this commercial engagement.
What the New Ambassador Must Deliver
Uttam’s immediate agenda is the implementation of the December 2025 Strategic Partnership. The two sides have committed to deepen cooperation in digital public infrastructure, healthcare, food security and agriculture, clean energy, critical minerals, and defence. Ethiopia has also joined India’s broader development partnership framework, under which the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme trains Ethiopian diplomats and officials, and India extends concessional lines of credit to fund projects in sugar, power transmission and industry.
Two wider agendas also await him. The Fourth India-Africa Forum Summit is being planned in New Delhi, and Ethiopia, as the seat of the African Union, will be central to its success. At the same time, India is positioning itself as a partner in Africa’s digital and AI transformation, with agreements already in place for a data centre in Addis Ababa and AI training for Ethiopian professionals. His background in consular work, multilateral budgeting at the UN, and the Gulf will be useful in managing a portfolio that combines people-to-people ties, Indian investment protection, and African Union diplomacy.
Both countries view each other as gateways: Ethiopia towards the African Continental Free Trade Area and India towards Asian markets. This strategic logic, captured in the December 2025 summit, gives the relationship momentum that extends well beyond the trade and investment numbers.
Key Takeaways
- Devesh Uttam, a 2003-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to Ethiopia, succeeding Anil Kumar Rai.
- Uttam was previously India’s Ambassador to Lithuania (since 2023) and earlier served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Tehran and Counsellor at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.
- The Addis Ababa posting is strategically significant because Ethiopia hosts the headquarters of the African Union, and the Indian Ambassador there also serves as Permanent Representative to the African Union.
- India and Ethiopia elevated their ties to a Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Modi’s first bilateral visit on 16-17 December 2025, when eight agreements and MoUs were signed.
- India is the second-largest trading partner of Ethiopia, with bilateral trade of about $550 million in FY 2024-25, and over 675 Indian companies have invested more than $6.5 billion in the country.
- Formal diplomatic relations between India and Ethiopia date back to 1950, and Ethiopia was the first African country to open an embassy in New Delhi.
