Political career
Serving as a political leader
His family lineage, academic life, and work experience have seen Jaishankur serve some of the most critical positions in the government of India. He has worked as a diplomat and a politician and, in both instances, proved himself worthy of every post.
In the year 1977 joined the Indian Foreign Service, where he was to later serve as the second and third secretary of India in Moscow’s Soviet Union. He served between 1979 to 1981, a period he also learned Russian.
In the year 1981 up to 1985, Jaishankur served the ministry of external affairs in the policy Planning department. In the same period, he worked for India as America’s undersecretary. He played a significant role in the nuclear deal as his team in India negotiated with the U.S. and solved the landmark issue. He also served for three years in Washington, D.C., at the Indian embassy as First Secretary, a position that he held from 1985.
The Indian Peacekeeping Force saw him serve as a political adviser and First Secretary in Sri Lanka between 1988 and 1990. In Budapest, in three years from 1990 saw Jaisanskaur serve as a Counsellor. He later returned to New Delhi and worked in the ministry of external affairs as Director. He was also a press secretary and former India’s president Shankar Dayal Sharma’s speechwriter.
In the year 2015, the 29th of January, Jaishankur got an appointment to serve as India’s Foreign Secretary. He got appointed by Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister. He replaced Ms. Sujatha Singh, whose appointment was by the former government. His office came after Obama visited India as he facilitated the success of the visit.
Another prestigious appointment was on the way for Jainshankur as he got into the Ministry of External Affairs’ office. The appointment took place in 2019 on the 31st of May, a position he still holds to date.
He belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party and is a member of parliament for the Gujarat state. He took reigns of office on the 5th of July, 2019, and is still the incumbent.
Diplomatic career
Serving as an ambassador
Jaishankur as the shrewd diplomat that he is, he still served as the Deputy Chief of mission between 1996 and 2000 in Tokyo at the Indian Embassy. He later got an appointment to the office of Indian ambassador in 2000 to the Czech Republic.
Still, at the Ministry of External Affairs, he worked as America’s Joint Secretary in New Delhi. He held the position for three years from 2004.
He got appointed as High Commissioner to Singapore, a position he held for two years from 2007. During this period, the Indian market in Singapore was vibrant thanks to his role in the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. As a result of the cordial relationship, Singapore also benefitted as it got to permanently safeguard a part of military equipment that Jainsakur helped stay in India.
Jainsaakur has several feathers on his cap, one of them being his position as ambassador to China. He served for four and a half years, becoming the longest-serving Indian in that position. He played a pivotal role in bringing the two nations together. The dispute of Sino-Indian border was one case he helped manage and helped improve trade and cultural ties.
In 2010 there was a case he helped address as China had refused the Indian army’s Nothern Command head to get a visa. He issued a briefing that saw the issue get solved in 2011. The other matter related to visa issuance was in the Chinese policy made Indians from Kashmir and Jammu get stapled Visas also got resolved.
In 2012 he visited Tibet the first trip after ten years by any Indian ambassador. He ensured there was a smooth flow of business between China and India. To strengthen the two countries culturally, he agreed with the Chinese government that Mandarin get introduced in schools in India.
September 2013 marked another year of appointment Jaishankur’s life as an ambassador, but this time to the U.S. At a time of his assignment there was an arrest dispute of Devyani Khobragade, the deputy consul of India to New York. The arrest was alleged on cases of Visa fraud and the issue had tarnished the two countiries relations. Jainshankur got into its negotiation process and it bore fruit as the Indian diplomat departed from the U.S.
In September, 2014, Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime minister went to the U.S. for his maiden visit. Jaishankur helped plan this visit and he welcomed the prime minister and evenv honored him with a dinner party attended by Indian diaspora community.
Personal life and public image
Mrs. Kyoko Jaishankar a Japanese is Jaishankar’s wife. Together they have three children, two sons namely Dhruva Jaishankur and Arjun Shakar and Medha Jaishankur, a daughter.
As a multilingual, Jaishankur can speak Russian, English, Tamil, Hindi, Japanese
and Hungarian. His Russian proficiency and education on nuclear diplomacy has made his work as a diplomat in Russia an easy one.
court cases
in February 2020, a caveat was filed by Jainshankar after Congress leaders filed a petition against his election as the Gujarat representative. The leaders had cited that the Election Commision was in violation of the law as per India’s constitution. The allegations were that the Commision treated two vacancies as different and required separate bypolls.
Swarupama Chaturvedi, Jainshankar’s lawyer went to apex court with the caveat. The intentions were that the Minister of External Affairs should be heard before making any judgement.
Awards and recognitions:
On the 26, January 2019 Jaishankur received an award, Padma Shri, from the Indian government. the award given to individuals ranks fourth in the list of prestigious recognitions the Government of India awards.