Vinay Mohan Kwatra

Vinay Mohan Kwatra is an Indian diplomat and India’s Ambassador to the United States. He took up the post on 12 August 2024 and is the 29th person to hold it, succeeding Taranjit Singh Sandhu.

Kwatra was born on 15 December 1962 and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1988. He served as the 34th Foreign Secretary of India from 1 May 2022 to 14 July 2024, after Harsh Vardhan Shringla and before Vikram Misri. Earlier he was Ambassador to Nepal from 2020 to 2022, and Ambassador to France, with accreditation to Monaco and as India’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO, from 2017 to 2020.

His earlier postings also include the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C., where he was Counsellor and head of the commercial wing from 2010 to 2013, and a term as Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office from 2015 to 2017.

On 14 November 2026 he was in the news after he said in a post on X that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom has no locus standi to sit in judgment over the constitutional rights of Indian citizens, following the commission’s post about the jailed activist Sharjeel Imam.

Sources: Wikipedia, ANI