Harsh Vardhan Shringla, India's Ambassador to the US, has been appointed as the new foreign secretary, according to a Personnel Ministry order issued on Monday.
He will take over the charge of the foreign secretary on January 29 after incumbent Vijay Keshav Gokhale's "two-year term" ends a day before, the order said.
The appointment has been cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to the order by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Shringla is a 1984-batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), with a diplomatic career spanning 35 years. He had earlier served as High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh and as the Indian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand. He had also served in France with the UNESCO, with the Indian mission to the UN in New York, and has had stints in Vietnam, Israel and South Africa.
An alumnus of St Stephen's College in Delhi, he speaks French, Vietnamese and Nepali besides Indian languages and English, according to his official bio.
Since taking over as India's ambassador to the US in December 2018, Shringla was among those who worked on the historic 'Howdy Modi' joint address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump.
In October, he briefed US members of Congress on the situation in Kashmir and the steps India had taken towards maintaining peace in the region.
With inputs from PTI
