The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the appointment of Vikram Misri as the new foreign secretary of India. He will succeed Vinay Mohan Kwatra and take charge on 15 July 2024.

Vikram Misri is considered a China expert and was the ambassador to China from January 2019 to December 2021 (during the Galwan Valley clashes).

As the foreign secretary, he will head the bureaucracy of the Ministry of External Affairs.

About 35th Foreign Secretary of India Vikram Misri

Vikram Misri will be the 35th foreign secretary of India. K.P.S Menon was India's first foreign secretary, appointed in 1948 after the creation of the present Ministry of External Affairs by the government of India after Independence.

He is currently the Deputy National Security Advisor in the National Security Council Secretariat.

When he assumes his office as foreign secretary, his tenure as the Deputy National Security Advisor will automatically lapse.

Vikram Misri was born in Kashmir in 1964. He is a 1989-batch Indian Foreign Service(IFS) officer who has worked in various capacities in the Ministry of External Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office.

Misri was appointed as under-secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) during the Inder Kumar Gujral government from November 1996 to April 1997.
He was later appointed Inder Kumar Gujral's private secretary from April 1997 to March 1998.
He served as the Director of the Office at the Ministry of External Affairs from November 2006 to September 2008.
He was appointed joint secretary at the Prime Minister's Office in 2012. He served as the private secretary to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh from October 2012 to May 2014.
He also served as the deputy high commissioner of India in Sri Lanka between 2008 and 2011, India’s ambassador to Spain from 2014 to 2016, and Myanmar from 2016 to 2018.
Vikram Misri was appointed as the Deputy National Security Adviser in the National Security Council Secretariat on 1 January 2022.

The first female foreign secretary of India was Chokila Iyer, who served from March 2001 to June 2002. She was the 23rd Foreign Secretary of India.

Minister for External Affairs: Dr S Jaishnakar