Vinay Kwatra is next Foreign Secretary

New Delhi: The Centre has appointed Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Vinay Mohan Kwatra the next Foreign Secretary, and he will take over from incumbent Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who retires from service on April 30.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Kwatra to the post.

Kwatra, with an experience of nearly 32 years in a range of assignments, is currently serving as the Indian Ambassador in Nepal since March 2020. He has worked in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office from 2015 to 2017 as Joint Secretary, and subsequently, went to France as India's Ambassador.

The 1988 batch IFS officer has served as the Third Secretary and then the Second Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva until 1993.

Between 1993 and 2003, he served as a desk officer at the headquarters dealing with the United Nations. Thereafter he was deployed at Indian missions in South Africa and Uzbekistan.