New Delhi: Deputy National Security Adviser (NSA) Vikram Misri, a 1989 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer who served as envoy to China when the Eastern Ladakh crisis began, has been appointed India’s next foreign secretary.
Government sources said current foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra, who was on an extension, is likely to be appointed as the next envoy to the US, as reported by ThePrint earlier.
A notification by the government said that Misri, who hails from Kashmir, will take over as foreign secretary on 15 July.
Misri took over as deputy NSA on 1 January 2022. This was after he had completed his tenure as India’s envoy to China from January 2019 to December 2021.
It was during his stint in Beijing that Chinese troops intruded into Indian territories at the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh, which resulted in the Galwan clash and subsequent withdrawal of soldiers from Indian territory.
Misri had at that time led crucial parleys with the Chinese government to bring the tensions down as both countries saw the biggest military build-up along the entire stretch of the LAC since the 1962 war.
Sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi liked his handling of the crisis and hence he was appointed as deputy NSA, succeeding now retired Pankaj Saran, who was also an IFS officer.
Incidentally, Misri has served as private secretary to prime ministers I. K. Gujral, Manmohan Singh and Modi.
Meanwhile, sources said that Kwatra, a career diplomat with over 34 years of experience, is likely to go as Indian ambassador to Washington DC, a post that has been vacant since the end of January, after IFS officer Taranjit Singh Sandhu retired.
Sandhu had returned from the US and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Punjab’s Amritsar seat, but lost to the Congress’s Gurjeet Singh Aulja.
Kwatra’s appointment comes at a time when bilateral relations between US and India are progressing. However, irritants like the alleged Pannun assassination plot and religious freedom issues remain.
Kwatra, a 1988 batch IFS officer, was not the most senior officer in service when he became the foreign secretary in April 2022.
He speaks fluent French and has a sound knowledge of India’s bilateral relationship with the US as well as China, having served in both the missions.
It is said that he was able to supersede some of his seniors because Modi was impressed with his work when he served in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) as joint secretary from October 2015 to August 2017.
From August 2017 till February 2020, Kwatra served as the ambassador of India to France and played a key role in implementing the Rafale fighter jet deal.
Incidentally, the current Indian envoy to France Jawed Ashraf could replace Misri as deputy NSA, it is learnt.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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