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Revision as of 20:13, 25 July 2023


Minister of External Affairs
Videsh Mantrī
Emblem of India
Incumbent
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
since 30 May 2019
Ministry of External Affairs
AppointerPresident on the advice of the Prime Minister
Inaugural holderJawaharlal Nehru
Formation2 September 1946

The Minister of External Affairs (or simply, the Foreign Minister, in 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 Foreign Minister is to represent India and its government in the international community. The Foreign Minister also plays an important role in determining Indian foreign policy. Occasionally, the Foreign Minister is assisted by a Minister of State for External Affairs or the lower-ranked Deputy Minister of External Affairs.

India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, also held the Foreign Minister post throughout his 17-year premiership of the country; he remains the country's longest-serving Foreign Minister. Several other Prime Ministers have since held the additional charge of foreign minister, but never has any other cabinet minister held additional charge of the office. There have been a number of Foreign Ministers who went on to become the Prime Minister like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, P. V. Narasimha Rao and I. K. Gujral.

The current Minister of External Affairs is Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, succeeding Sushma Swaraj of the Bharatiya Janata Party on 30 May 2019.

List of Foreign Ministers

№ Portrait Name Term of office Length Political party
(Alliance) 		Prime Minister
1 File:Jnehru.jpg Jawaharlal Nehru 15 August 1947 27 May 1964 16 years, 286 days Indian National Congress Jawaharlal Nehru
2 Gulzarilal Nanda 27 May 1964 9 June 1964 13 days Gulzarilal Nanda
(acting)
3 Error creating thumbnail: File missing Lal Bahadur Shastri 9 June 1964 17 July 1964 38 days Lal Bahadur Shastri
4 Swaran Singh 18 July 1964 14 November 1966 2 years, 119 days Lal Bahadur Shastri
Indira Gandhi
5 Error creating thumbnail: File missing M. C. Chagla 14 November 1966 5 September 1967 295 days Indira Gandhi
6 Error creating thumbnail: File missing Indira Gandhi 6 September 1967 13 February 1969 1 year, 160 days
7 Dinesh Singh 14 February 1969 27 June 1970 1 year, 133 days
(4) Swaran Singh 27 June 1970 10 October 1974 4 years, 105 days
8 Error creating thumbnail: File missing Yashwantrao Chavan 10 October 1974 24 March 1977 2 years, 165 days
9 Error creating thumbnail: File missing Atal Bihari Vajpayee 26 March 1977 28 July 1979 2 years, 124 days Janata Party Morarji Desai
10 Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra 28 July 1979 14 January 1980 170 days Janata Party (Secular) Charan Singh
11 Error creating thumbnail: File missing P. V. Narasimha Rao 14 January 1980 19 July 1984 4 years, 187 days Indian National Congress Indira Gandhi
(6) Error creating thumbnail: File missing Indira Gandhi 19 July 1984 31 October 1984 104 days
12 Rajiv Gandhi 31 October 1984 24 September 1985 328 days Rajiv Gandhi
13 Error creating thumbnail: File missing Bali Ram Bhagat 25 September 1985 12 May 1986 230 days
14 P. Shiv Shankar 12 May 1986 22 October 1986 163 days
15 Error creating thumbnail: File missing N. D. Tiwari 22 October 1986 25 July 1987 276 days
(12) Rajiv Gandhi 25 July 1987 25 June 1988 336 days
(11) Error creating thumbnail: File missing P. V. Narasimha Rao 25 June 1988 2 December 1989 1 year, 160 days
16 V. P. Singh 2 December 1989 5 December 1989 3 days Janata Dal
(National Front) 		V. P. Singh
17 Error creating thumbnail: File missing I. K. Gujral 5 December 1989 10 November 1990 340 days
18 Chandra Shekhar[1] 10 November 1990 21 November 1990 11 days Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)
 Chandra Shekhar
19 Vidya Charan Shukla 21 November 1990 20 February 1991 91 days
(18) Chandra Shekhar[2] 20 February 1991 21 June 1991 121 days
20 Madhavsinh Solanki 21 June 1991 31 March 1992 284 days Indian National Congress P. V. Narasimha Rao
(11) Error creating thumbnail: File missing P. V. Narasimha Rao 31 March 1992 18 January 1993 293 days
(7) Dinesh Singh 18 January 1993 10 February 1995 2 years, 23 days
21 Error creating thumbnail: File missing Pranab Mukherjee 10 February 1995 16 May 1996 1 year, 96 days
22 Sikander Bakht 21 May 1996 1 June 1996 11 days Bharatiya Janata Party Atal Bihari Vajpayee
(17) Error creating thumbnail: File missing I. K. Gujral 1 June 1996 18 March 1998 1 year, 291 days Janata Dal
(United Front) 		H. D. Deve Gowda
I. K. Gujral
(9) Error creating thumbnail: File missing Atal Bihari Vajpayee 19 March 1998 5 December 1998 261 days Bharatiya Janata Party
(National Democratic Alliance) 		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
23 Jaswant Singh 5 December 1998 1 July 2002 3 years, 208 days
24 Error creating thumbnail: File missing Yashwant Sinha 1 July 2002 22 May 2004 1 year, 326 days
25 Natwar Singh 22 May 2004[3] 6 November 2005[4] 1 year, 168 days Indian National Congress
(United Progressive Alliance) 		Manmohan Singh
26 Manmohan Singh 6 November 2005 24 October 2006 352 days
(21) Error creating thumbnail: File missing Pranab Mukherjee 24 October 2006[5] 22 May 2009 2 years, 210 days
27 S. M. Krishna 22 May 2009 26 October 2012 3 years, 157 days
28 Salman Khurshid 28 October 2012 26 May 2014 1 year, 210 days
29 Error creating thumbnail: File missing Sushma Swaraj 26 May 2014 30 May 2019 5 years, 4 days Bharatiya Janata Party
(National Democratic Alliance) 		Narendra Modi
30 Error creating thumbnail: File missing Subrahmanyam Jaishankar 30 May 2019 Incumbent 7 years, 75 days

List of Ministers of State

Ministers of State of External Affairs
Minister of state Portrait Political party Term Years
V. K. Singh Bharatiya Janata Party 26 May 2014 30 May 2019 5 years, 4 days
M. J. Akbar 5 July 2016 17 October 2018 2 years, 104 days
V. Muraleedharan 30 May 2019 Incumbent 7 years, 75 days
Meenakshi Lekhi Error creating thumbnail: File missing 7 July 2021 Incumbent 5 years, 37 days
Rajkumar Ranjan Singh File:Dr. Ranjan Singh.jpg 7 July 2021 Incumbent 5 years, 37 days

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Council of Ministers" (PDF).
  2. ↑ "Council of Ministers" (PDF).
  3. ↑ Rediff.com dated 22 May 2004, accessed 25 October 200
  4. ↑ BBC News dated 7 November 2005, accessed 25 October 200
  5. ↑ The Hindu dated 25 October 2006, accessed 25 October 2006.

External links

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