Gopal Baglay has been officially appointed the new spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs. He takes over from Vikas Swarup, who has moved on as High Commissioner of India to Canada.
Baglay, who is a 1992 batch officer, was joint secretary dealing with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Unlike Swarup, who had no previous experience with the media, Baglay was press counsellor at the Indian mission in Kathmandu (2005-08). He was also director of external publicity at the MEA from 2008-10.
A Lucknow University graduate, Baglay speaks English, Hindi, Urdu, Nepali and Russian. He has also learnt Ukranian.
