Minister of External Affairs (India)

The Minister of External Affairs (or simply the External Affairs Minister; Hindi: Videsh Mantri) is the head of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most offices in the union cabinet, the chief responsibility of the minister of external affairs is to represent the government of India in the international community and advance its interests on the global stage. As such, the minister plays an important role in shaping and directing the country's foreign policy. Typically, the minister is assisted by one or more junior ministers, known as Ministers of State (MoS) for External Affairs.

The role, created when India became independent in August 1947 as Minister of External and Commonwealth Affairs, was held by India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru throughout his 17-year premiership; Nehru remains the longest serving external affairs minister followed by S. Jaishankar, the incumbent minister. It was renamed Minister of External Affairs upon India's becoming of a republic in 1950.

Several other Prime Ministers have since held the additional charge as the Minister of External Affairs, but never has any other cabinet minister held additional charge of the office—although during Nehru's premiership, V. K. Krishna Menon was acknowledged as de facto minister of external affairs beyond his official designation as defence minister. There have been a number of external affairs ministers who went on to become the prime minister like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, P. V. Narasimha Rao and I. K. Gujral. Two former career-diplomats have served as ministers of external affairs, including Natwar Singh (20042005) who served as India's ambassador to Poland and as high commissioner to Pakistan, and the current minister S. Jaishankar who retired as the foreign secretary. Two other ministers, M. C. Chagla and I. K. Gujral also served as ambassadors, with Chagla serving as India's ambassador to the United States and high commissioner to the United Kingdom, while Gujral served as ambassador to the Soviet Union.

The current minister of external affairs is S. Jaishankar, who succeeded Sushma Swaraj of the Bharatiya Janata Party on 30 May 2019.

Cabinet Ministers

PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party MinistryPrime Minister From To Period Minister of External and Commonwealth Affairs Jawaharlal Nehru(Prime Minister) 15 August 1947 26 January 1950 Indian National Congress Nehru I Self Minister of External Affairs Jawaharlal Nehru(Prime Minister) 26 January 1950 27 May 1964 Indian National Congress Nehru I Self Nehru II Nehru III Nehru IV Gulzarilal Nanda(Prime Minister) 27 May 1964 9 June 1964 Nanda I Self Lal Bahadur Shastri(Prime Minister) 9 June 1964 17 July 1964 Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri Swaran Singh 17 July 1964 11 January 1966 11 January 1966 24 January 1966 Nanda II Gulzarilal Nanda 24 January 1966 14 November 1966 Indira I Indira Gandhi M. C. Chagla 14 November 1966 13 March 1967 13 March 1967 5 September 1967 Indira II Indira Gandhi(Prime Minister) 6 September 1967 13 February 1969 Dinesh Singh 14 February 1969 27 June 1970 Indian National Congress (R) Swaran Singh 27 June 1970 18 March 1971 18 March 1971 10 October 1974 Indira III Yashwantrao Chavan 10 October 1974 24 March 1977 Atal Bihari Vajpayee 26 March 1977 28 July 1979 Janata Party Desai Morarji Desai Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra 28 July 1979 14 January 1980 Janata Party (Secular) Charan Charan Singh P. V. Narasimha Rao 14 January 1980 19 July 1984 Indian National Congress Indira IV Indira Gandhi Indira Gandhi(Prime Minister) 19 July 1984 31 October 1984 Shankarrao Chavan(Minister without portfolio assisting the Prime Minister) 19 July 1984 2 August 1984 Rajiv Gandhi(Prime Minister) 31 October 1984 31 December 1984 Rajiv I Rajiv Gandhi 31 December 1984 24 September 1985 Rajiv Bali Ram Bhagat 24 September 1985 12 May 1986 P. Shiv Shankar 12 May 1986 22 October 1986 N. D. Tiwari 22 October 1986 25 July 1987 Rajiv Gandhi(Prime Minister) 25 July 1987 25 June 1988 P. V. Narasimha Rao 25 June 1988 2 December 1989 V. P. Singh(Prime Minister) 2 December 1989 5 December 1989 Janata Dal Vishwanath V. P. Singh Inder Kumar Gujral 5 December 1989 10 November 1990 Chandra Shekhar(Prime Minister) 10 November 1990 21 November 1990 Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar Vidya Charan Shukla 21 November 1990 20 February 1991 Chandra Shekhar(Prime Minister) 20 February 1991 21 June 1991 Madhavsinh Solanki 21 June 1991 31 March 1992 Indian National Congress Rao P. V. Narasimha Rao P. V. Narasimha Rao(Prime Minister) 31 March 1992 18 January 1993 Dinesh Singh 18 January 1993 10 February 1995 Pranab Mukherjee 10 February 1995 16 May 1996 Atal Bihari Vajpayee(Prime Minister) 16 May 1996 21 May 1996 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee I Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sikander Bakht 21 May 1996 1 June 1996 Inder Kumar Gujral(Prime Minister from 21 April 1997) 1 June 1996 21 April 1997 Janata Dal Deve Gowda H. D. Deve Gowda 21 April 1997 19 March 1998 Gujral Self Atal Bihari Vajpayee(Prime Minister) 19 March 1998 5 December 1998 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee II Atal Bihari Vajpayee Jaswant Singh 5 December 1998 13 October 1999 13 October 1999 1 July 2002 Vajpayee III Yashwant Sinha 1 July 2002 22 May 2004 Natwar Singh 23 May 2004 6 November 2005 Indian National Congress Manmohan I Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh(Prime Minister) 6 November 2005 24 October 2006 Pranab Mukherjee 24 October 2006 22 May 2009 S. M. Krishna 23 May 2009 28 October 2012 Manmohan II Salman Khurshid 28 October 2012 26 May 2014 Sushma Swaraj 26 May 2014 30 May 2019 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi S. Jaishankar 30 May 2019 Incumbent Modi II Modi III

Ministers of state

PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party MinistryPrime Minister From To Period Charu Chandra Biswas 13 May 1950 13 May 1952 Indian National Congress Nehru I Jawaharlal Nehru Syed Mahmud 7 December 1954 17 April 1957 Nehru II Lakshmi N. Menon 16 April 1962 24 January 1966 Nehru IV Nanda I Gulzarilal Nanda Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri Nanda II Gulzarilal Nanda Dinesh Singh 24 January 1966 13 March 1967 Indira I Indira Gandhi Bali Ram Bhagat 14 November 1967 14 February 1969 Indira II Surendra Pal Singh 5 February 1973 10 October 1974 Indian National Congress (R) Indira III Samarendra Kundu 14 August 1977 28 July 1979 Janata Party Desai Morarji Desai Bedabrata Barua 4 August 1979 14 January 1980 Indian National Congress (Urs) Charan Charan Singh A. A. Rahim 2 September 1982 31 October 1984 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Indira Gandhi Ram Niwas Mirdha 2 August 1984 31 October 1984 A. A. Rahim 4 November 1984 31 December 1984 Rajiv I Rajiv Gandhi Ram Niwas Mirdha Khurshed Alam Khan 31 December 1984 25 September 1985 Rajiv II K. R. Narayanan 25 September 1985 22 October 1986 Eduardo Faleiro 12 May 1986 14 February 1988 Natwar Singh 22 October 1986 2 December 1989 Kamla Kant Tiwari 25 June 1988 22 April 1989 Hari Kishore Singh 23 April 1990 10 November 1990 Indian People's Front Vishwanath Vishwanath Pratap Singh Eduardo Faleiro 21 June 1991 18 January 1993 Indian National Congress Rao P. V. Narasimha Rao R. L. Bhatia 2 July 1992 16 May 1993 Salman Khurshid 18 January 1993 16 May 1996 Saleem Iqbal Shervani 9 June 1997 19 March 1998 Samajwadi Party Gujral Inder Kumar Gujral Kamala Sinha Janata Dal Vasundhara Raje 20 March 1998 13 October 1999 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee II Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ajit Kumar Panja 13 October 1999 16 March 2001 All India Trinamool Congress Vajpayee III Krishnam Raju 30 September 2000 22 July 2001 Bharatiya Janata Party Omar Abdullah 22 July 2001 23 December 2002 Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Digvijay Singh 1 July 2002 22 May 2004 Janata Dal (United) Vinod Khanna 29 January 2003 22 May 2004 Bharatiya Janata Party E. Ahamed 23 May 2004 22 May 2009 Indian Union Muslim League Manmohan I Manmohan Singh Rao Inderjit Singh 23 May 2004 29 January 2006 Indian National Congress Anand Sharma 29 January 2006 22 May 2009 Preneet Kaur 28 May 2009 26 May 2014 Manmohan II Shashi Tharoor 28 May 2009 19 April 2010 E. Ahamed 19 January 2011 26 May 2014 Indian Union Muslim League V. K. Singh 27 May 2014 30 May 2019 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi M. J. Akbar 5 July 2016 17 October 2018 V. Muraleedharan 31 May 2019 9 June 2024 Modi II Meenakshi Lekhi 7 July 2021 9 June 2024 Rajkumar Ranjan Singh 7 July 2021 9 June 2024 Kirti Vardhan Singh 10 June 2024 Incumbent Modi III Pabitra Margherita

Deputy ministers PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party Ministry Prime Minister From To Period Deputy Minister of External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations 1 B. V. Keskar 7 December1948 26 January1950 Indian National Congress Nehru I Jawaharlal Nehru Deputy Minister of External Affairs (1) B. V. Keskar 31 January1950 13 May1952 Indian National Congress Nehru I Jawaharlal Nehru 2 Anil Kumar Chanda 12 August1952 17 April1957 Indian National Congress Nehru II 17 April1957 1 May1957 Nehru III 3 Lakshmi N. Menon 17 April1957 10 April1962 4 Dinesh Singh 8 May1962 27 May1964 Indian National Congress Nehru IV 27 May1964 9 June1964 Nanda I Gulzarilal Nanda 15 June1964 11 January1966 Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri 11 January1966 24 January1966 Nanda II Gulzarilal Nanda 5 Surendra Pal Singh 18 March1967 18 March1971 Indian National Congress Indira II Indira Gandhi Indian National Congress (R) 18 March1971 5 February1973 Indira III 6 Bipinpal Das 17 October1974 24 March1977 7 Digvijay Singh 28 November1990 21 June1991 Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar

Length of Tenure Cabinet Ministers #Name of MinisterPartyTermsLength of term Longest tenure Total tenure 1 Jawaharlal Nehru 2 14 years, 121 days 16 years, 285 days 2 S. Jaishankar 2 3 P. V. Narasimha Rao 3 4 years, 187 days 6 years, 275 days 4 Swaran Singh 5 4 years, 105 days 6 years, 225 days 5 Sushma Swaraj 1 5 years, 4 days 5 years, 4 days 6 Pranab Mukherjee 2 2 years, 210 days 3 years, 305 days 7 Jaswant Singh 2 2 years, 262 days 3 years, 209 days 8 S. M. Krishna 1 3 years, 158 days 3 years, 158 days 9 Dinesh Singh 2 2 years, 23 days 3 years, 156 days 10 Atal Bihari VajpayeeJP/BJP 3 2 years, 124 days 3 years, 25 days 11 Inder Kumar Gujral 3 0 years, 340 days 2 years, 266 days 12 Yashwantrao Chavan 1 2 years, 165 days 2 years, 165 days 13 Yashwant Sinha 1 1 years, 325 days 1 years, 325 days 14 Rajiv Gandhi 3 0 years, 336 days 1 year, 299 days 15 Indira Gandhi 2 1 years, 160 days 1 years, 264 days 16 Salman Khurshid 1 1 years, 210 days 1 years, 210 days 17 Natwar Singh 1 1 years, 167 days 1 years, 167 days 18 Manmohan Singh 1 0 years, 352 days 0 years, 352 days 19 M. C. Chagla 2 0 years, 176 days 0 years, 295 days 20 Madhavsinh Solanki 1 0 years, 284 days 0 years, 284 days 21 N. D. Tiwari 1 0 years, 276 days 0 years, 276 days 22 Bali Ram Bhagat 1 0 years, 230 days 0 years, 230 days 23 Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra 1 0 years, 170 days 0 years, 170 days 24 P. Shiv Shankar 1 0 years, 163 days 0 years, 163 days 25 Chandra Shekhar 2 0 years, 121 days 0 years, 132 days 26 Vidya Charan Shukla 1 0 years, 91 days 0 years, 91 days 27 Lal Bahadur Shastri 1 0 years, 38 days 0 years, 38 days 28 Shankarrao Chavan 1 0 years, 14 days 0 years, 14 days 29 Gulzarilal Nanda 1 0 years, 13 days 0 years, 13 days 30 Sikander Bakht 1 0 years, 11 days 0 years, 11 days 31 V. P. Singh 1 0 years, 3 days 0 years, 3 days

See also Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar

References

External links Official Website of Ministry of External Affairs MEA Library