Rahul Chhabra, Secretary (ER), MEA

Rahul Chhabra took over the post of Secretary (Economic Relations), Ministry of External Affairs on 8th June 2020. Prior to taking over his current post, Mr. Chhabra was High Commissioner to Kenya, Ambassador to Somalia and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) & the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), based in Nairobi from Nov. 2018 to June 2020. He was Ambassador to Hungary and Bosnia & Herzegovina from August 2015 to October 2018. 

At Headquarters, he worked as Joint Secretary (Central Europe). He conceived and organized the first two editions of the India-Central Europe Business Forum which has now become a regular feature in the Indian business calendar. During this assignment, he was instrumental in focusing India’s foreign policy towards the Arctic and the V-4.

While earlier serving in New Delhi, he worked to promote foreign investment flows into India, having been part of India’s delegation to the World Economic Forum at Davos. Later, he served as Director for External Publicity at the Ministry of External Affairs and Director in the Foreign Secretary’s Office. 

During his stints abroad, Mr. Chhabra has served in Kenya, Hungary, China, United States, Philippines, France, Senegal and Belgium. 

After an undergraduate degree in Economics, on the merit list, from the prestigious St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, he obtained a graduate degree in Economics, with a national scholarship, from the premier institute Delhi School of Economics and Masters in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta, where he was placed on the Roll of Honour. 

Rahul Chhabra is married to Kavita and they have two adult sons. 

Email: secyer@mea.gov.in