Vinay Mohan Kwatra to supersede seniors to succeed Shringla as Foreign Secretary

Kwatra, a 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has held positions in India's diplomatic missions in Washington DC and Beijing

Vinay Mohan Kwatra, currently India’s ambassador to Nepal, will succeed Harsh Vardhan Shringla as the new Foreign Secretary on May 1 next.

The Union Government on Monday issued a notification announcing the appointment of the new Foreign Secretary, who would take over a day after the superannuation of the incumbent on April 30.

Kwatra, who had joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1988, superseded several senior diplomats to be appointed to the top office at the Ministry of External Affairs.

The seniors, whom he superseded, included Ruchira Kamboj and Gaitri Issar Kumar, now New Delhi’s envoys to Bhutan and the United Kingdom respectively. Kamboj and Kumar had joined the IFS in 1987. They were perceived to be among the frontrunners for the post of the top diplomat. The newly-appointed Foreign Secretary is also junior to Ajay Bisaria and Sanjay Bhattacharya, both officers of the 1987 batch of the IFS and currently India’s ambassadors to Canada and Switzerland respectively.

Shringla, who joined the IFS in 1984, took over as the Foreign Secretary in January 2020. His tenure will end on April 30 next. Though he has not been given an extension, the ace diplomat is being considered for appointment as the coordinator for preparation for the G20 summit, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host next year, a source in New Delhi said.

Kwatra served as a joint secretary in the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from October 2015 to August 2017. He also served as New Delhi’s envoy to Paris from August 2017 to February 2020, before being appointed as India’s ambassador to Nepal.

Two of Kwatra’s batch-mates – Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Sanjay Kumar Verma – were also being considered for the position of Foreign Secretary. Sandhu and Verma, who joined the IFS in 1988, are currently India’s ambassadors to the United States and Japan.

Kwatra started his career by serving as Third Secretary and then Second Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva between 1988 and 1993.

Between 1993 and 2003, he served as the Desk Officer at the MEA headquarters in New Delhi, dealing with India’s engagements with the United Nations and subsequently in the diplomatic missions in South Africa and Uzbekistan. Between 2003 and 2006, he served as counsellor and later as the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India in Beijing. From 2006 to 2010, he represented India at the SAARC Secretariat in Nepal as head of the Trade, Economy and Finance Bureau. From May 2010 till July 2013, he served as Minister (Commerce) in the Embassy of India in Washington. Between July 2013 and October 2015, Kwatra headed the Policy Planning and Research Division of the MEA and later served as the head of its Americas Division, where he dealt with India’s relations with the United States and Canada.

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