Biography

Vikram Misri is an Indian diplomat, who served in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America during various Indian missions. He is a 1989 batch Indian Foreign Service officer. He was appointed as the ambassador of India to China on 8 January 2019. He has served as the private secretary of three Indian Prime Ministers including Inder Kumar Gujral, Manmohan Singh, and Narendra Modi. He was appointed as the deputy national security advisor of India on 28 December 2021.Vikram was born and raised in Srinagar. Soon after completing his graduation, he worked for three years in the advertising and filmmaking industry. In 1989, he joined the Indian Foreign Service. From 1991 to 1996, Vikram Misri served as an Indian diplomat in Brussels and Tunis during various Indian missions.From November 1996 to April 1997, Vikram Misri served as the under-secretary in the Office of the External Affairs Minister of India to the Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral. In April 1997, Vikram Misri was elevated as the private secretary to the Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and held the position till March 1998.From August 2000 to September 2003, Vikram Misri served as the First Secretary at the High Commission of India in Islamabad; during this tenure, incidents of the Indian Parliament attack, Op Parakram, and Agra summit took place.From September 2003 to October 2006, Vikram was appointed as the Political Counsellor in the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C., where he was involved in making changes in Indo-US relationships during the Manmohan Singh government and George W Bush administration in the US.From November 2006 to September 2008, Vikram Misri served as the Director of the Office of the External Affairs Minister under Pranab Mukherjee.From September 2008 to September 2011, Vikram Misri served in Sri Lanka as Deputy High Commissioner of India. Later, from September 2011 to February 2012, Vikram served as the Consul General of India in Munich.In 2012, Vikram Misri was appointed as the private secretary to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Later, he also served as the Private Secretary to the 14th Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Vikram Misri with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.In 2016, he was appointed as the ambassador to Myanmar. In 2019, he was designated as the ambassador to China. In 2020, to discuss the tension during the Galwan Valley clashes between China and India, Vikram Misri fixed a series of meetings between the senior officials including Liu Jianchaou of China. In a press conference, during this intense situation, Vikram Misri stated that managing border issues must be the priority deal of both countries. He said, For long, the Indian and Chinese sides have adhered to a well-understood distinction between resolving the boundary question and managing border affairs. This is the root cause of the tense situation along the borders. We advocate that we should address the boundary issue through peaceful negotiations and we dont think that the border issue should be linked up to our bilateral tie. He also advocated the cooperation between the two countries during the development of the COVID-19 vaccination in 2020. Vikram Misri while posing with China President Xi Jinping during an official meeting in 2020.Vikram Misri is well acquainted with Hindi, English, Kashmiri, Spanish, Urdu, and French languages. In a conversation with a media house, he talked about the languages he learnt to represent India as a diplomat. He said, My mother tongue is Kashmiri. I speak, read and write English and Hindi and have a nodding acquaintance with Punjabi and Urdu. Among foreign languages, I can speak, read and write French. I can also speak just about enough Spanish to survive on the streets and in the supermarkets!.