By Sourish Bhattacharyya

The Ambassador of Chile to India and Sri Lanka, Jorge Heine, has been granted a four-year extension by his country's newly elected centre-left President, Michelle Bachelet. Heine, who'd served as his country's ambassador in South Africa before being sent to New Delhi, was the nominee of Bachelet's predecessor, Ricardo Lagos.

After his arrival in New Delhi, Heine has been quick in making friends and influencing people. A big promoter of wine, and supporter of the Delhi Wine Club, Heine believes that wine is an effective tool of diplomacy because it makes people bond. "I can't get Delhi talking about Chile if I only talk about copper," he had said to me. Copper is Chile's principal export item.

During Heine's tenure, Chile and India have signed a Partial Trade Agreement (PTA). It is the first such agreement to be signed by India with a Latin American country - wine is not among the 600 items listed in the PTA, even though Chilean wine exports to India have risen ten-fold in the last five years.

A political appointee, Heine, who holds a Master's degree and doctorate from Stanford, is a distinguished political scientist who has served as Professor of Political Science at Diego Portales University ; Director, Chile 21 Foundation's International Affairs Programme; Consulting Professor, Stanford University ; and Adjunct Professor, University of Heidelberg . Even as we write this, he is in Fukuoka, Japan, for an international conclave of political scientists.

Heine, who is 58 and whose wife Norma is an economist currently on a sabbatical, has served as Chile's Minister of National Assets and Deputy Minister of Defence, but he's essentially a well-travelled academic who has also taught at the Institute of International Studies, University of Chile, and the War Academy of the Chilean Army. An author, co-author or editor of eight scholarly books, his previous positions include that of Associate Director of the EC-funded Institute for European-Latin American Relations in Madrid; Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez; Director, Caribbean Institute and Study Centre for Latin America at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, San Germán; Deputy Director, Latin American Programme, Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington, D.C.