New Delhi
India’s new Foreign Secretary will be Vikram Misri, an Indian Foreign Service officer from 1989 batch who is currently the Deputy National Security Adviser.
The Ministry of External Affairs’ request to name Vikram Misri as the next Foreign Secretary was approved by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC). He will take over as Foreign Secretary from Vinay Mohan Kwatra.
Since Kwatra’s term expires on July 14, Misri will take over as Foreign Secretary on July 15.
The Ministry of External Affairs has approved the following proposals by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet: Grant of Extension of Service for Shri Vinay Kwatra (IFS:1988) as Foreign Secretary beyond April 30, 2024, to July 14, 2024, in Partial Modification of the Order Dated March 12, 2024. Reduction of Shri Vikram Misri, IFS (1989)’s stay in the National Security Council Secretariat as Deputy National Security Advisor The formal order stated as much.
Appointment of Shri Vikram Misri, IFS (1989), Deputy National Security Advisor in the National Security Council Secretariat to the post of Foreign Secretary w.e.f. July 15, 2024 vice Shri Vinay Kwatra, it said.
In March of this year, Kwatra was granted an extension of six months.
The 59-year-old Misri holds the distinction of having worked as a private secretary to three prime ministers: Narendra Modi in 2014, Manmohan Singh in 2012, and Inder Kumar Gujral in 1997.
Misri was educated in Gwalior for his early schooling after being born in Srinagar in 1964. He graduated from XLRI with an MBA and Delhi University’s Hindu College with a bachelor’s degree in history.
