Arindam Bagchi is India’s next envoy to UN

New Delhi: External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi was on Monday appointed as India’s next permanent representative to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva.

Bagchi is currently additional secretary in the External Affairs Ministry. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly, according to an official statement.

People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that four diplomats are being considered to replace Bagchi as the foreign ministry’s spokesperson, including Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur, Joint Secretary (G20), and K Nandini Singla, High Commissioner to Mauritius.

Bagchi, from the 1995 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), took over as spokesperson in March 2021 and had an eventful stint that spanned the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s standoff with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the country’s G20 presidency.