Celebrated former top diplomat Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has been appointed the new Minister of External Affairs. Jaishankar, who was previously the foreign secretary during the Narendra Modi government’s first term in office, was a surprise addition to the Narendra Modi Cabinet 2.0, which took oath on Thursday.

Before he became the foreign secretary, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar served as India’s ambassador to the United States as well as China.

A 1977-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar played a major role during the Doklam stand-off negotiations with China. The 2017 Doklam stand-off was among India and China’s worst crises; Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in an eye-to-eye confrontation for over two months.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who had China expertise thanks to his experience of serving as Delhi’s ambassador to Beijing, led the negotiations to resolve the crisis.

During the Manmohan Singh years, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was involved in negotiating the landmark and controversial Indo-US nuclear deal.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is the son of late K Subrahmanyam, one of India’s leading strategic analysts. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is a graduate of St Stephen’s Collegeand has an MA in political Science and an MPhil and PhD in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

S Jaishankar is married to Kyoko Jaishankar and has two sons and a daughter.

In 2019, S Jaishankar was conferred with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India.