Mohan Kwatra India’s new foreign secretary

Career diplomat and Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra has been named as India's new foreign secretary, succeeding Harsh Vardhan Shringla who is retiring at the end of this month.

Kwatra, a 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has held positions in India's diplomatic missions in Washington, Beijing and has also served as Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office during his 32 years of service, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

From 2006 to 2010, he represented India at the SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu as head of the Trade, Economy, and Finance Bureau.

Prior to his appointment as ambassador to Nepal in March 2020, he served as the ambassador to France from August 2017 to February 2020.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Kwatra to the post of foreign secretary upon Shringla's retirement on April 30, 2022, a Personnel Ministry order said.

Shringla, a former high commissioner to Bangladesh, is likely to take over as coordinator of the G-20 summit which India will host in November next year.

Kwatra has worked closely with Modi as PM before he was appointed as envoy to France. Besides, he is considered close to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

Shringla, who completed more than two years as foreign secretary, was a key figure in India's "neighbourhood first" policy stressing on enhanced ties with Bangladesh, Bhutan, and other South Asian countries. He was also responsible for executing India's outreach to the Indian Ocean countries.