India's Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Kwatra Named Next Foreign Secretary

Kwatra will take over the post from incumbent Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who retires from service on 30 April.

Vinay Kwatra has been serving as the Indian Ambassador in Nepal since March 2020.

(Photo: Twitter/ Amb Vinay Mohan Kwatra)

The Centre has appointed Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Vinay Mohan Kwatra as the next Foreign Secretary, and he will take over the post from incumbent Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who retires from service on 30 April.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Kwatra to the post.

Kwatra, with an experience of nearly 32 years in a range of assignments, has been serving as the Indian Ambassador in Nepal since March 2020.

He has worked in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office from 2015 to 2017 as Joint Secretary, and subsequently, went to France as India's Ambassador.

Who Is He?

The 1988-batch IFS officer has served as the Third Secretary and then the Second Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva until 1993. Between 1993 and 2003, he served as a desk officer at the headquarters dealing with the United Nations. Thereafter, he was deployed at Indian missions in South Africa and Uzbekistan.

From 2003 to 2006, he served as the Counsellor and later as the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Beijing embassy. Then he represented India at the SAARC Secretariat in Nepal as head of the Trade, Economy, and Finance Bureau.

From May 2010 to July 2013, he served as the Minister (Commerce) in the embassy in Washington.

From July 2013 to October 2015, he headed the Policy Planning and Research Division of the MEA and later served as the head of the Americas Division, where he dealt with the US and Canada.