The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is a diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vikram Misri is the 35th and the current Foreign Secretary.
Shivshankar Menon is an Indian diplomat, who served as National Security Adviser of India under Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. He had previously served as the Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. Prior to that he was Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and ambassador to China and Israel. He is currently Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress. He is also Visiting Professor of International Relations at Ashoka University.
Chenicheri Vijay Nambiar is a retired Indian diplomat and served as the UN Secretary General's Special Advisor on Myanmar. He was Chef de Cabinet under UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from 1 January 2007 to February 2012. He held the rank of Under-Secretary-General and was a member of the Secretary-General's Senior Management Team. Mr. Nambiar previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor to the Government of India and Head of the National Security Council Secretariat. He previously served as India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Earlier as Ambassador of India, he served successively in Pakistan (2000-2001), China (1996-2000), Malaysia (1993-1996), and Afghanistan (1990-1992). He was earlier Ambassador of India in Algeria (1985-1988).
Navtej Singh Sarna is an Indian author, columnist, diplomat and former Indian Ambassador to the United States. He previously served as the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, and the Ambassador to Israel.
Nirupama Menon Rao is a retired civil servant of 1973 batch Indian Foreign Service cadre who served as India's Foreign Secretary from 2009 to 2011, as well as being India's Ambassador to the United States, China and Sri Lanka during her career.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, better known as S. Jaishankar, is an Indian diplomat, politician and author, who is serving the 30th Minister of External Affairs of the Government of India since 31 May 2019. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and has been a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha since 5 July 2019. He previously served as the Foreign Secretary from January 2015 to January 2018.
Syed Akbaruddin is a retired Indian diplomat from 1985 batch of the Indian Foreign Service and served as India's permanent representative at the United Nations at New York from January 2016 to April 2020. He had previously served as official spokesperson of India's Ministry of External Affairs from January 2012 to April 2015 and was Indian representative at IAEA from 2006 to 2011. He is currently serving as the dean of Kautilya School of Public Policy.
Gautam Bambawale is an Indian diplomat and served as the Indian Ambassador to China from 2017 to 2018. He had previously served as the Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan.
The 2017 China–India border standoff or Doklam standoff was a military border standoff between the Indian Armed Forces and the People's Liberation Army of China over Chinese construction of a road in Doklam, near a trijunction border area known in Chinese as Donglang, or Donglang Caochang . On 16 June 2017 Chinese troops with construction vehicles and road-building equipment began extending an existing road southward in Doklam, a territory that is claimed by both China and India's ally Bhutan.
Pankaj Saran is a former Indian civil servant of the Indian Foreign Service cadre. He was the Deputy National Security Adviser of India.
Anil Wadha is an Indian civil servant who belongs to the Indian Foreign Service cadre. He has served as the Indian Ambassador to Italy, Poland, Oman and Thailand. He is currently a Senior Fellow and Cluster Leader at the Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi.
T. S. Tirumurti is a retired Indian civil servant (Ambassador) of the Indian Foreign Service cadre. His diplomatic career spanned 37 years (1985-2022). He served as the Secretary to Government of India and later as Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York when India became a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 8th time. He was also the President of the UN Security Council for August 2021.
Harsh Vardhan Shringla is Chief Coordinator for India’s G20 Presidency in 2023. He has previously served as Foreign Secretary of India and India's Ambassador to the United States, High Commissioner to Bangladesh, and Ambassador to Thailand.
Manjeev Singh Puri is a retired Indian civil servant of the Indian Foreign Service cadre and the former Ambassador of India to Nepal.
Taranjit Singh Sandhu is a retired Indian diplomat who served as High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka and 28th Ambassador of India to the United States.
Beginning on 5 May 2020, Chinese and Indian troops engaged in aggressive melee, face-offs, and skirmishes at locations along the Sino-Indian border, including near the disputed Pangong Lake in Ladakh and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and near the border between Sikkim and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Additional clashes also took place at locations in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Pavan Kapoor is an Indian diplomat and former Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Indian Ambassador to Russia. Currently, he is serving as the Deputy National Security Advisor in the National Security Council secretariat. He previously served as India's High Commissioner to Mozambique and the Kingdom of Swaziland from January 2014 to early 2016, Ambassador to Israel from March 2016 to September 2019, and Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from October 2019 to November 2021.
Vikram Misri is an Indian diplomat. He currently serves as the 35th Foreign Secretary of India from July 2024 onwards. Previously, he served as the Deputy National Security Advisor of India from 1 January 2022, succeeding Pankaj Saran till 14 July 2024. Whereas, he has served as the ambassador of India to China from January 2019 to December 2021.
Pradeep Kumar Rawat is an Indian diplomat.
The 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue is a diplomatic summit that has been held every year since 2018 initially between the Minister of External Affairs or Foreign Minister, and Defence Minister of India with the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense of the United States to discuss and work on common issues of concern to improve and strengthen India–United States relations.
