MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi Appointed As India's Next Ambassador To UN

The government on Monday (16 October) appointed Arindam Bagchi as India's next permanent ambassador to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva.

"Arindam Bagchi (IFS:1995), presently Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, has been appointed as the next Ambassador/Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

"He is expected to take up the assignment shortly," he added.

Bagchi, a 1995 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, was appointed as MEA spokesperson in March 2021 and has had an eventful stint that spanned the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and India’s standoff with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). 

Prior to his current assignment, he served as Indian Ambassador to Croatia and as Deputy High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka in Colombo for more than four years.

Bagchi also worked as Director in the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi for over four years, handling relations with the Americas and Russia, as well the United Nations and various global issues. He also handled work relating to the Departments of Atomic Energy and Space.

His earlier external assignments have been with the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in New York (looking after economic, development and environmental issues and efforts to reform the UN Security Council), and the Indian Embassies in Lima (Peru) and Madrid (Spain).

In the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, he has worked in Divisions dealing with the USA and Canada, as well as Administration and Human Resources.