New Delhi, Jan 29 (IANS) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Thursday said she was aware of the move to appoint S. Jaishankar as the new foreign secretary and had spoken about it to incumbent Sujatha Singh.

In a series of tweets, hours after Jaishankar met her after taking charge, Sushma Swaraj said: “Since Jaishankar was retiring on 31st January, we had to issue orders of his appointment before that date.”

“Then I spoke to Ms Sujatha Singh personally. I told her that the government wanted to appoint Dr. Jaishankar as Foreign Secretary,” the minister tweeted.

Jaishankar met Sushma Swaraj in her South Block office after taking charge. Sujatha Singh was not present at the taking over event.

The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday night appointed Jaishankar, an Indian Foreign Service officer of 1977 batch, as the new foreign secretary. The cabinet’s Appointments Committee, headed by Prime Minister Modi, in a decision taken Wednesday night, decided to “curtail the tenure” of the incumbent Sujatha Singh “with immediate effect”.

Jaishankar was till Wednesday India’s envoy to the US.