Minister of External Affairs (India)

The Minister of External Affairs (or simply, the Foreign 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 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.

Minister of External Affairs
Videsh Mantrī
Incumbent
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
since 30 May 2019
Ministry of External Affairs
AbbreviationEAM
Member ofUnion Council of Ministers
Reports toPrime Minister of India Parliament of India
AppointerPresident on the advice of the Prime Minister
Inaugural holderJawaharlal Nehru
Formation2 September 1946
Unofficial namesEAM
DeputyMinister of State in the Ministry 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 External Affairs Ministers
# Portrait Name Term of office Length Prime Minister Party
1 Jawaharlal Nehru 15 August 1947 27 May 1964 16 years, 286 days Jawaharlal Nehru Indian National Congress
2 Gulzarilal Nanda 27 May 1964 9 June 1964 13 days Gulzarilal Nanda
(acting)
3 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 M. C. Chagla 14 November 1966 5 September 1967 295 days Indira Gandhi
6 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 Yashwantrao Chavan 10 October 1974 24 March 1977 2 years, 165 days
9 Atal Bihari Vajpayee 26 March 1977 28 July 1979 2 years, 124 days Morarji Desai Janata Party
10 Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra 28 July 1979 14 January 1980 170 days Charan Singh Janata Party (Secular)
11 P. V. Narasimha Rao 14 January 1980 19 July 1984 4 years, 187 days Indira Gandhi Indian National Congress
(6) Indira Gandhi 19 July 1984 31 October 1984 104 days
12 Rajiv Gandhi 31 October 1984 24 September 1985 328 days Rajiv Gandhi
13 Bali Ram Bhagat 25 September 1985 12 May 1986 230 days
14 P. Shiv Shankar 12 May 1986 22 October 1986 163 days
15 N. D. Tiwari 22 October 1986 25 July 1987 276 days
(12) Rajiv Gandhi 25 July 1987 25 June 1988 336 days
(11) 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 V. P. Singh Janata Dal
17 I. K. Gujral 5 December 1989 10 November 1990 340 days
18 Chandra Shekhar[1] 10 November 1990 21 November 1990 11 days Chandra Shekhar Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)
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 P. V. Narasimha Rao Indian National Congress
(11) 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 Pranab Mukherjee 10 February 1995 16 May 1996 1 year, 96 days
22 Sikander Bakht 21 May 1996 1 June 1996 11 days Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bharatiya Janata Party
(17) I. K. Gujral 1 June 1996 18 March 1998 1 year, 291 days H. D. Deve Gowda
I. K. Gujral		 Janata Dal
(9) Atal Bihari Vajpayee 19 March 1998 5 December 1998 261 days Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bharatiya Janata Party
23 Jaswant Singh 5 December 1998 1 July 2002 3 years, 208 days
24 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 Manmohan Singh Indian National Congress
26 Manmohan Singh 6 November 2005 24 October 2006 352 days
(21) 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 Sushma Swaraj 26 May 2014 30 May 2019 5 years, 4 days Narendra Modi Bharatiya Janata Party
30 Subrahmanyam Jaishankar 30 May 2019 Incumbent 3 years, 353 days

List of Ministers of States
Ministers of State of External Affairs
No. Portrait Name Term of office Length Prime Minister Party
1. Bipinpal Das 1974 1977 3 years Indira Gandhi Indian National Congress
2. Kamala Sinha 1997 1998 1 year, 154 days I.K. Gujral Janata Dal
3. Ajit Kumar Panja 13 October 1999 16 March 2001 1 year, 154 days All India Trinamool Congress
4. Omar Abdullah 22 July 2001 23 December 2002 1 year, 154 days Jammu & Kashmir National Conference
5. Krishnam Raju 26 July 2001 28 August 2002 295 days Bharatiya Janata Party
6. Digvijay Singh 1 July 2002 22 May 2004 1 year, 328 days Janata Dal (United)
7. Vinod Khanna 29 January 2003 22 May 2004 1 year, 114 days Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bharatiya Janata Party
8. E. Ahmed 23 May 2004 26 May 2014 10 years, 3 days Manmohan Singh Indian Union Muslim League
9. V. K. Singh 26 May 2014 30 May 2019 5 years, 4 days Narendra Modi Bharatiya Janata Party
10. M. J. Akbar 5 July 2016 17 October 2018 2 years, 104 days
11. V. Muraleedharan 30 May 2019 Incumbent 3 years, 353 days
12. Meenakshi Lekhi 7 July 2021 Incumbent 1 year, 315 days
13. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh 7 July 2021 Incumbent 1 year, 315 days
Plaque of the Minister of External Affairs at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi.
Plaque of the Minister of External Affairs at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi.

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.
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