The government on Thursday recommended ambassadors to India, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

According to Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand, former Nepali ambassador to the United States Shankar Sharma has been recommended as ambassador for India.

The post had gone vacant after the Sher Bahadur Deuba government on September 22 recalled ambassadors from 12 countries. They were appointed by the KP Sharma Oli government.

Nimlamber Acharya, who served as Nepal's ambassador to India from February, 2019, returned from New Delhi last week.

Professor Shridhar Khatri has been recommended Nepal's ambassador to the United States. Khatri has headed several think tanks in Kathmandu and Sri Lanka.

Yubaraj Khatiwada, who was appointed ambassador to the United States by the erstwhile Oli government, returned to Kathmandu on Thursday.

The government recommended former foreign secretary and ambassador Gyan Chandra Acharya as Nepal’s envoy to the United Kingdom.

Acharya in the past served as under-secretary general of the United Nations and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States from 2012 to 2016.

Former chief secretary Lok Darshan Regmi had been serving as the ambassador of the United Kingdom. He also returned recently.

While proposing the names for the ambassadors to the three countries at the Cabinet on Friday, Prime Minister Deuba reportedly said that the government was in a bid to pick professionals as ambassadors who are well known in the nation and to the international community.

All three ambassadors—Sharma, Acharya and Khatri—were picked under the quota of the Nepali Congress, Deuba’s party.

The ambassadors have to face the Parliamentary Hearing Committee.

As many as 20 missions abroad are still vacant.

After the Deuba government recalled 12 ambassadors, 23 missions had become vacant, as the government had not appointed envoys in 11 diplomatic missions.