IndiaPost.com - US 'very pleased' with Ronen Sen's extension

WASHINGTON: The US has said it was "very pleased" with India's decision to extend the tenure of its ambassador Ronen Sen here as it would help bilateral ties to continue in a "positive direction".

"He (Sen) is a great friend of our country and we are so pleased," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told PTI after a meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations here. Calling Sen a "great friend" of the US, the senior State department official said the Indian envoy "has done a magnificent job. He has the full trust of the US government.

"He is a great friend of ours and we are very pleased he is staying," Burns said. "I think it means that the positive direction that the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and President Bush have given is going to continue," Burns said. Sen is understood to have been asked to continue in Washington as the Indian government is apparently not keen on replacing him at this moment considering the fact that the Indo-US nuclear deal is at a crucial stage. The 64-year-old diplomat has been in the US since August 2004.

Though the government had earlier decided not to give an extension to Sen, it is understood there was a rethink. The move asking him to continue is being seen in the context of deepening Indo-US relations in which he played a crucial role as also the unfinished business of the deal.

Government feels that his continuance would be helpful in a successful conclusion of the agreement. Sen was in the eye of the storm for his "headless chickens" remarks allegedly directed against lawmakers for which he was summoned by the Privileges Committee of both houses of Parliament.