Vikram Misri, envoy during Galwan crisis, new Foreign Secretary

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, June 28

Deputy National Security Adviser Vikram Misri, a 1989-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, was today appointed the next Foreign Secretary. He will take charge on July 15, succeeding Vinay Mohan Kwatra.

Serving as Deputy NSA

Vikram Misri, a Kashmiri Pandit, has served as private secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi (May-July 2014), and ex-PMs IK Gujral (1997-1998) and Manmohan Singh (2012-2014)

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet cleared his name. Misri has been serving as the Deputy NSA since January 1, 2022. Misri was India’s envoy to China from January 2019 to December 2021 — a period when relations between the two countries plummeted to a six-decade low with the armies locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation along the 832 km Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Misri takes over at a time when ties with China have improved, but remain far from normal due to the ongoing military standoff along the LAC since April 2020. India has made it clear restoration of status quo along the LAC as on April 2020 remains a prerequisite to any progress in relations.

For PM Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Misri’s role stood out soon after the military standoff along the LAC. The Indian and Chinese armies clashed at Galwan on June 15, 2020, with the threat further escalation. Another clash followed in August 2020 when Indian troops captured the peak of Rinchen La, east of Chusul, overlooking the Chinese garrison of Moldo.

In September 2020, Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) ministerial meeting in Moscow. Two hours of talks followed and a “five-point” consensus to ease the ongoing border tensions was arrived at.

Misri, as India’s envoy to Beijing, was part of the negotiations. He and his team in Beijing worked behind the scenes — during the Covid pandemic — to facilitate diplomatic and military conversations. PM Modi, it is learnt, liked Misri’s handling of the crisis.

Meanwhile, outgoing foreign Secretary Kwatra is expected to go as the next Ambassador to the US, a post lying vacant since January when Taranjit Singh Sandhu retired and jumped into the electoral fray. He unsuccessfully contested the Amritsar seat.

The government also has to fill the post of India’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York, which fell vacant with the retirement of Ruchira Kamboj.