As per a notice by the government, Vikram Misri, the deputy national security advisor, succeeded Vinay Kwatra as the new foreign secretary. The Personnel Ministry’s decision stated: “The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Misri, Deputy NSA in the National Security Council Secretariat, to the post of Foreign Secretary with effect from July 15.”
Who is Vikram Misri?
The three prime ministers who have had Vikram Misri, an IFS member from the 1989 batch, as a private secretary are Manmohan Singh, Inder Kumar Gujral, and Narendra Modi. Between the time of November 1996 and April 1997, Misri served as the under secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) under the administration of IK Gujral. This was in the initial years of his career. In subsequent years, he also worked as Gujral’s private secretary, beginning in April 1997 and continuing until March 1998.
The IFS official worked as an under secretary for the Pakistan desk at the MEA once again, from April 1998 until August 2000.
From November 2006 until September 2008, Misri served as the MEA’s Director of the Office while Pranab Mukherjee was India’s foreign minister. In 2012, he was appointed joint secretary at the PMO for a brief tenure that lasted from March to October. Later that year, he was named the then-prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s private secretary, a position he held until May 2014. Between 2011 and 2012, Misri served as the Indian Consul General in Germany. Before that, from 2008 to 2011, he was India’s deputy high commissioner in Sri Lanka. In addition, he represented India as an ambassador to Myanmar in 2016 and Spain in 2014.
Known as the China expert, Misri
His competence in China is well-known, and he was recently appointed to the position of foreign secretary. During the Galwan skirmishes, he continued to serve as an ambassador in Beijing from January 2019 until December 2021, which was his final deployment overseas. Misri is currently considered to be among the senior officials in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in charge of things pertaining to China.
According to the Hindustan Times, a number of experts believe that Vikram Misri would be an excellent candidate for the position of foreign secretary. In light of his critical grasp of China, which presents India with a fundamental challenge in terms of its foreign policy, this comes as no surprise.
A Diplomat from Kashmir
On November 7, 1964, Vikram Misri was born in the city of Srinagar itself. The Hindu College, University of Delhi, awarded him a degree in History, and he went on to receive a Master of Business Administration from Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur. Since January 2022, Misri has been serving in his present position inside the National Security Council Secretariat, where he reports to the National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval.
