Vinay Mohan Kwatra, currently Indian Ambassador to Nepal, has been appointed new foreign secretary of India. He will succeed Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who is retiring at the end of this month.

“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Vinay Mohan Kawtra, 1988 batch of Indian Foreign Service, ambassador to Kathmandu, to the post of foreign secretary,” reads a notice issued by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, government of India.

Besides Kwatra, India’s ambassador to the United States of America, Taranjit Sandhu was in the race for the coveted post.

Kwatra has been serving as Indian ambassador to Nepal since March 2020.

The announcement was made just one day after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s return from his three-day visit to India, for which Kwatra was also in New Delhi.

Kwatra previously served in France from October 2015 to August 2017.

Kwatra has also served as a joint secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister of India. He had earlier served in Nepal at the SAARC Secretariat.

Kwatra is the first Indian ambassador to Nepal to become foreign secretary after Shayam Saran in 2004.