The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved "the appointment of Shri Vikram Misri, Deputy National Security Advisor in the National Security Council Secretariat to the post of Foreign Secretary with effect from July 15," the Ministry of Personnel said in an order.

Kwatra, who was to retire in April, was given an extension till October-end. However, this extension is being cut short, in a move that raised many eyebrows.  

People familiar with the development said Kwatra might get an important assignment, including the job of the next ambassador to the United States that has been lying vacant since the last envoy to Washington, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, returned to India in February this year to contest the recently held parliamentary elections on a BJP ticket.

Misri is a China expert who served as Ambassador to Beijing till 2021. His expertise are hoped to be leveraged to revive dialogue with the Chinese leadership to normalise relations between the India and China that have come under strain in recent years.

Relations between India and China haven’t fared too well ever since clashes in the high Himalayas in 2020 and recently China’s President Xi Jinping pointedly refrained from congratulating Narendra Modi on his third successive term as Prime Minister of India, after having sent warm messages after his earlier two wins. 

China was also unhappy with India’s thanking the Taiwanese President Lai Ching-Te for a congratulatory message on his victory. With The Chinese Embassy angrily lashing out on social media platform X,  that there “is no such thing as ‘President’ of Taiwan”, reiterating Beijing’s stand that the island nation was an “inalienable” part of mainland China.

Misri, who belongs to the 1989 batch of Indian Foreign Service, is an alumnus of the prestigious Gwalior-based Scindia School and Hindu College. He has closely worked with NSA Ajit Doval as his deputy. He has also been private secretary to two former PMs – I.K Gujral and Manmohan Singh – both of whom had taken up policies to improve ties with neighbours.