Deputy NSA Vikram Misri, 1989-Batch IFS Officer, To Be New Foreign Secretary

The Government on Friday (28 June) appointed deputy National Security Advisor (NSA) Vikram Misri as the new foreign secretary.

Misri will take charge as foreign secretary on 15 July.

The government has also partially modified its March order, which granted a six-month extension to current foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra.

According to a notification by the Ministry of Personnel, Kwatra will now serve as foreign secretary till 14 July.

The 59-year-old Misri is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1989 batch who has the rare distinction of serving as private secretary to three prime ministers.

Misri has served as private secretary to three Prime Ministers - Inder Kumar Gujral in 1997, Manmohan Singh in 2012, and Narendra Modi in 2014.

Misri was born in Srinagar in 1964 and completed his early education in Gwalior.

He has an undergraduate degree in history from the Hindu College of Delhi University and an MBA from XLRI.

Misri began his career as a diplomat from the 1989 batch of the Indian Foreign Service.

During his early years, he served at the Indian missions in Brussels and Tunis. He was made India's ambassador to Spain in 2014, and Myanmar in 2016.

He has also served in various Indian missions in Africa and North America.

In his previous stint, he was ambassador to China, where he played a key role in Indo-China talks after the Galwan Valley clashes in 2020, and had advocated for cooperation between the two countries to expedite the development of a vaccine when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

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