Vikram Misri takes over as India balances ties with US, Russia
Ajay Banerjee
New Delhi, July 15
Vikram Misri, a 1989-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, today, took over as India’s 35th Foreign Secretary, at a time when New Delhi is treading a razor’s edge to balance ties between US and Russia — even as the four-year-long stalemate on the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh between Indian and Chinese troops shows no signs of imminent resolution.
Modi’s visit to Moscow last week seemed to have set the cat among the pigeons in the US. As the PM and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, embraced each other in Moscow — the PM’s visit coincided with the NATO summit — there were clear signs of displeasure in Washington DC. Back in New Delhi, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti told journalists that there is no such thing as “strategic autonomy in the time of conflict” and that India should not “take ties for granted”.
Misri was India’s envoy to China from January 2019 to December 2021 when Chinese troops climbed the LAC heights, setting alarm bells ringing in Delhi. Relations with Beijing have since plummeted to a six-decade low with armies of either side locked in eye-ball to eye-ball confrontation along the 832 kms of LAC in eastern Ladakh.
At the time Ambassador Misri played a key-role in keeping tempers under check after the Indian and Chinese Army clashed at Galwan on June 15, 2020. Another clash ensued in late August 2020 when Indian troops captured the peak of Rinchen La, east of Chusul overlooking the Chinese Garrison of Moldo.
When he returned to Delhi, he joined National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s team as deputy NSA, a post he held from January 1, 2022, until now.
The new Foreign Secretary certainly has his task cut out for him, with the China imbroglio on top of the agenda. On July 4, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of SCO Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, that disengagement of militaries along the LAC was the only way to remove ‘obstacles’ in normalising relations.
Jaishankar “reaffirmed the LAC must be respected and peace and tranquillity in the border areas always enforced”. Modi, it is learnt , liked Misri’s handling of the crisis as tensions between the two countries saw the biggest military build-up since the Oct-Nov 1962 war in the Himalayas.
Today Jaishankar posted on X: “Congratulate Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri as he assumes his new responsibility today. Wish him a productive and successful tenure”.
Born in Srinagar, Misri has served as private secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi (May-July 2014), former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral (1997-1998) and Manmohan Singh (2012-2014)
Misri also served as India’s ambassador to Spain (2014-2016) and Myanmar (2016-2018). He has also had stints in the Indian missions in Belgium, Pakistan, the US, Sri Lanka and Germany
Misri did his early education in Srinagar’s Burn Hall School and DAV School, as well as in Udhampur’s Carmel Convent School. He finished his schooling from the Scindia School in Gwalior. He complete his BA (Hons) in History from Hindu College, Delhi and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. Before joining the government, he worked for three years in the private sector in the advertising company Lintas India and Contract Advertising in Mumbai and Delhi, respectively.
Misri is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute USA’s India Leadership Initiative. He speaks fluent Hindi, English and Kashmiri and has a working knowledge of French.
