Ashley Tellis tipped to be next US envoy to India

Bombay-born Tellis went to the University of Bombay before going to the US for further education

Mumbai- born strategic expert Ashley J Tellis, who had played an important role in the inking of the India-US nuclear deal nearly a decade back, could be US President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be the next US Ambassador to New Delhi, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

The newspaper report said: "Transition sources said Trump is close to selecting Ashley Tellis, a former White House official and renowned India expert, to be the next US ambassador to India." The newspaper report said the appointment of Tellis was to be part of Trump administration's focus on Asia, and a more hawkish line on China that would see the US forge stronger alliances with its partners in the region. 

Tellis, if he were to be appointed as the next occupant of the Roosevelt House in New Delhi's Chanakya Puri, would succeed Richard Verma, also an Indian American. On Sunday night, Verma, the 25th US Ambassador to India, tweeted after a meeting with actor Amitabh Bachchan that he would depart on January 20, the day of Trump's inauguration as the next US president. "Tonight I told @SrBachchan I will depart as US Ambassador to India on January 20; it has been a great honour to serve India," Verma tweeted.

Tellis is currently a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think tank. He is also known to have been a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts at strengthening India-US relations, and had met the PM when the think tank opened its India chapter in April 2016. Tellis is a well known figure in India's foreign policy leadership, including foreign secretary S Jaishankar. The two had played important roles in negotiating the India-US nuclear deal.

According to his profile on the Carnegie Endowment website, Tellis has served as senior advsier to US ambassador to Delhi Robert Blackwill and has also been National Security Council special assistant to the US president.