Shri. Vijay Gokhale, former ambassador and Foreign Secretary of India, retired from the Indian Foreign Service in January 2020 after a diplomatic career that spanned thirty-nine years. Shri. Vijay Gokhale is a non-resident senior fellow at Carnegie India. He has also been a distinguished faculty member at the Symbiosis International University in Pune since January 2021.
Prior to his term as foreign secretary, Shri. Gokhale served as India’s high commissioner to Malaysia from January 2010 to October 2013, as ambassador of India to the Federal Republic of Germany from October 2013 to January 2016, and as ambassador of India to the People’s Republic of China from January 2016 to October 2017. He has served as head of the India-Taipei Association in Taiwan from July 2003 to January 2007. During his time in the headquarters of the Ministry of External Affairs, he has also worked in key positions in the East Asia Division, including as the joint secretary (Director General) for East Asia from March 2007 to December 2009.
He has worked extensively on matters relating to the Indo-Pacific region with a special emphasis on Chinese politics and diplomacy. Since his retirement, he has been an active writer for prominent news outlets. He has written three books on China, namely Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest (2021), The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India (2021), After Tiananmen: The Rise of China (2022), and Crosswinds: Nehru, Zhou and the Anglo-American Competition over China (2024).
Shri. Gokhale speaks English, Hindi, Marathi, and Mandarin Chinese. He has a master’s degree in History from the University of Delhi in 1980. He studied Mandarin Chinese at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1983-84.