S Jaishankar to be India's foreign minister again; KV Singh & Pabitra Margherita to be MoS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has retained S Jaishankar as the Minister of External Affairs in the new government.

In the 3rd Modi Ministry, Jaishankar will be supported by two Ministers of State: Kirtivardhan Singh and Pabitra Margherita.

Jaishankar is among the senior ministers that Modi has retained from the previous term. Besides him, Modi has retained the other ‘Big 4’ ministers as well: Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

At the completion of this term, Jaishankar is set to be the longest-serving External Affairs Ministers of India after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who held the portfolio for the entirety of his 17-year-long tenure as the PM of India (1947-64).

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In the past five years, Jaishankar has been central to the driving India’s agenda at the world stage. Through Covid-19, the Ukraine War, and the Gaza conflict, Jaishankar has defended India’s strategic choices, explained the Indian point of view to the world, and has become Modi’s ambassador to the world at large.

In the coming term, Jaishankar faces the challenge of the navigating India’s tense relationship with China, which reached its worst point since the war of 1962 in 2020 when Chinese soldiers intruded into Indian territories and clashed with Indian soldiers. Even though soldiers are no longer clashing at the border, the relationship remains tense and the border stand-off continues now in its fifth year with no end in sight.

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Jaishankar is a Member of Parliament from Gujarat in Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Parliament.

Jaishankar is a career diplomat and retired as the Foreign Secretary of India in 2018. He had joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1977.

Then, in 2019, Modi roped him in as the Minister of External Affairs. During his 41 years of service, Jaishankar held crucial postings in the United States, China, and Russia and helped steer some of India’s most critical relationships.

Jaishankar served three tenures as India’s ambassador: the USA (2013-15), China (2009-2013), Singapore (2007-2009), and Czech Republic (2000-2004). He also served other diplomatic assignments in Russia, Sri Lanka, Hungary, and Japan. He also served in Ministry of External Affairs in India and in the President’s Secretariat.