Vikram Misri, a veteran of three PMOs, takes charge as Foreign Secretary

Vikram Misri on Monday took charge as India’s foreign secretary for a period of two years. The 1989 batch Indian Foreign Service officer previously served with three prime ministers and two external affairs ministers.

The development coincided with several other key appointments at the external affairs ministry and Indian Missions abroad. The country’s envoy to Sweden, Tanmay Lal, will be the new secretary (west), while the envoy to Kyrgyzstan, Arun Chatterjee, could be appointed as secretary in charge of passports and consular matters, according to people familiar with the matter.

Among the missions that will have new envoys over the next few months include those in the United States, UN (New York) France, Portugal, Mauritius, Sweden and Kyrgyzstan. Some other missions in Africa and Southeast Asia may also see new envoys.


Misri also brings experience of serving in various Indian Missions abroad in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America.

His assignments in Delhi have included work on the ministry’s Pakistan desk and stints on the staffs of two external affairs ministers, IK Gujral and Pranab Mukherjee.

Apart from serving as joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, he has served as private secretary to three PMs – IK Gujral, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi.

Misri has served abroad in Brussels, Tunis, Islamabad and Washington D.C. He was deputy high commissioner of India in Sri Lanka and Consul General of India in Munich.

Misri was appointed as India’s ambassador to Spain in 2014, ambassador to Myanmar in 2016 and ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, where he served from January 2019 to December 2021, and handled ties when they touched a low over the Galwan conflict. He was most recently the deputy national security adviser (strategic affairs) of India from January 1, 2022, to June 30, 2024.

An alumnus of the Hindu College, Misri has MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. Before joining the government, he worked for three years in the private sector in the fields of advertising (Lintas India and Contract Advertising) and advertising film-making. He is a fellow of the Aspen Institute USA’s India Leadership Initiative (now the Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellowship).