 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(February 2025) |
| Minister of State for External Affairs | |
|---|---|
| Videś Rājya Mantrī | |
 | |
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| Ministry of External Affairs | |
| Member of | Cabinet of India Parliament of India |
| Reports to | President of India Prime Minister of India Parliament of India Minister of External Affairs |
| Appointer | President of India on the recommendation of the prime minister of India |
| Formation | 1957 |
| First holder | Syed Mahmud |
The Minister of State for External Affairs (or simply, the external affairs minister of state) is the deputy head of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India and the deputy to their senior counterpart in the ministry, the Minister of External Affairs. The chief responsibility of the minister of state for external affairs is to assist their senior colleague in the affairs of the ministry, or perform duties as directed to them by the prime minister or the minister of external affairs to represent the government in the international community and advance its interests on the global stage. The current ministers of state are Kirti Vardhan Singh and Pabitra Margherita, both of whom are in office since 10 June 2024 in the third cabinet of prime minister Narendra Modi.
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The position was first created in 1957 and held by Syed Mahmud under prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Until 1991, the minister of state was assisted by a deputy minister. On most occasions, there has been two ministers of state and sometimes, there has been three ministers of state in the ministry. Following the 2021 cabinet reshuffle, there were three ministers of state in the ministry, namely V. Muraleedharan, Meenakshi Lekhi, and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh.
Four ministers of state for external affairs, viz. Dinesh Singh, Bali Ram Bhagat, K. Natwar Singh, and Salman Khurshid later went on to head the ministry as the ministers of external affairs. K. Natwar Singh served as India's ambassador to Poland, and Pakistan, K. R. Narayan served as ambassador to the United States and China, and later went on become the first dalit president in 1997, while Kamala Sinha served as ambassador to Suriname and high commissioner to Barbados after her term as minister of state.
