Who is Vinay Mohan Kwatra?

Senior Indian Foreign Services (IFS) officer Vinay Mohan Kwatra (57) was appointed as India’s 34 Foreign Secretary on April 4, 2022. He will succeed the incumbent Harsh Vardhan Shringla on April 30.

 

Kwatra is a 1988 batch IFS officer who is currently serving as Indian ambassador to Nepal since March 2020. He has served as a diplomat for over 32 years and is credited for improving the India-Nepal ties in his tenure.

Life and Education

 

Kwatra, a vegetarian and teetotaller, holds a Master in Science (M.Sc.) degree and is fluent in French and Russian along with Hindi and English languages.

 

He has also obtained a diploma in International Relations in Geneva from the Graduate School of International Studies in Geneva.

 

He holds deep faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ideas of diplomacy — and does not shy away from saying so, as an authored article in Nepali newspapers on India’s ties with Nepal in the context of Covid-19 management showed.

 

Career

 

After joining the service, Kwatra served as Third Secretary and then Second Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva until 1993. He has also served at the Indian consulate in Durban, China, and Russia, in the ministry of external affairs (MEA) handling India’s development program in Afghanistan; and as head of economic, trade, and finance issues in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

 

Kwatra has headed the policy planning & research division of the Ministry of External Affairs and later served as the head of the Americas Division in the Foreign between July 2013 and October 2015.

 

He has also served as Minister (Commerce) in the Indian Embassy in Washington from May 2010 till July 2013.

 

He was the joint secretary at the Prime Minister’s office between 2015 and 2017, after which he was sent to France as an ambassador until February 2020.