Atul Keshap is a career United States Senior Foreign Service Officer currently serving as the U.S. representative for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and as the primary economic advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He coordinates U.S. economic and trade diplomacy toward 21 APEC member economies that generate 44 percent of global trade and $34 trillion of GDP.
Prior to his current position, Atul Keshap served from 2010-2012 as Director of the Office of India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Bhutan Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, helping direct U.S. strategic and economic policy toward a strategically important region comprising one fifth of humanity.
From 2008 to 2010, Keshap was Director of the Office of Human Rights, Humanitarian, and Social Affairs in the Bureau of International Organizations of the State Department. In that capacity, he helped lead U.S. efforts to frame multilateral human rights policy with regard to the United Nations system, including instructions to U.S. delegations to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.
Mr. Keshap served as Deputy Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India from 2005 to 2008, where he was one of the Ambassador’s advisors on the U.S.-India civilian nuclear energy cooperation initiative and worked to implement a broad strategic partnership with India.
From 2003-2004, Keshap served as Director for North African and Middle Eastern Regional Affairs at the National Security Council staff in the Executive Office of the President. He was responsible for recommendations to the President and National Security Advisor on policy formulation for Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria.
Other assignments in Washington include as Special Assistant for the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia for the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Country Desk Officer for the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, and Operations Officer on the executive staff of the Secretary of State. Overseas, Keshap has also served as a political/economic officer at U.S. Embassies in Rabat, Morocco and Conakry, Guinea.
He is the recipient of several Department of State individual Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, as well as a certificate of recognition from Secretary of State Colin Powell for duties performed in the State Department Operations Center on September 11, 2001 and afterwards.
Originally from Charlottesville, Virginia, Keshap has also lived in Nigeria, Lesotho, Afghanistan, Zambia, and Austria. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. While there, he concentrated on Economics, International Relations, Diplomacy, and Religious Studies. Keshap has working proficiency in French and can engage in limited conversational Hindi.
