Author, experienced diplomat and former Indian Minister of External Affairs Natwar Singh has died today at the age of 95 while receiving treatment at a hospital in Gurgaon, India.
Former Indian Minister of External Affairs and experienced diplomat, Natwar Singh has died today at the age of 95.
Indian news outlets report that Singh, who is also a renowned author, had passed away two weeks into his medical treatments at a hospital in Gurgaon, India.
Natwar, who also served as the former leader of the political party, Indian National Congress, had contributed significantly towards strengthening diplomatic relations between India and Maldives.
Joining the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1953, shortly after India's independence from British rule in 1947, Natwar served as the Indian ambassador to several countries early in his career - also working in Beijing, China prior to the 1962 India-China war. He had also served as the India's representative at the United Nations.
At the time, Natwar Singh was widely recognized as one of the most trusted diplomats of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Natwar left foreign services to enter politics in the early 1980s, signing into the Indian National Congress and securing a seat at the Parliament of India.
Following the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, Singh had also served her son and successor, Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as the State Minister of Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1984 through 1986. He had then served as a Union Minister of State until 1989.
After Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, Singh had stepped away from politics during the tenure of the succeeding Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. He had returned into the scene after the next Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh assumed power in 2004 and appointed Singh as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
However, he was forced to exit politics in 2005 only 18 months into his position following the Iraqi oil scandal. This scandal implicated Singh as a noncontractual beneficiary of illegal oil sales through exploitation of the UN's Oil-for-Food program which allowed Iraq to sell oil in exchange for food and other humanitarian aid while under strict UN sanctions.
He then formed his own political party. However, he retired from the political scene not long after.
Natwar had always demonstrated a keen interest in writing and reading books. He had written and archived several periods in history within his works, with his most successful book being the autobiography he published in 2014 titled, 'One Life is Not Enough'.
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