Amb. (Retd.) Asoke Mukerji is a former Indian diplomat and writer, who teaches diplomacy at the Diplo Foundation. He was a Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and served as the country’s ambassador to Kazakhstan. He became Consul General of India in Soviet Central Asia in June 1990, and helped transform India’s relations with the five newly independent countries of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan during the period of transition following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Amb. Mukerji worked as a trade negotiator in the newly formed World Trade Organization and was among the first Indian officials tasked with representing India in trade disputes involving India brought before the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism.