Nepal

Bharat Raj Paudyal becomes new Foreign Secretary

Paudyal, who was serving as joint secretary and spokesperson at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, promoted to the post of Foreign Secretary that fell vacant after Bairagi appointed as Chief Secretary last week

KathmanduPati October 09, 2020

KATHMANDU: The government has promoted Bharat Raj Paudyal, a joint secretary, to the post of Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The cabinet meeting held on Thursday decided to promote Paudyal, the senior most officer at the ministry, to the post of Foreign Secretary.

Paudyal was the spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry. He had also served as Nepal’s ambassador to Pakistan. The post of Foreign Secretary had fallen vacant last week after the government appointed then Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi as the Chief Secretary of the government on October 1. After the appointment of Bairagi as the Chief Secretary, Paudyal was entrusted the responsibility of the acting Foreign Secretary. Paudyal is scheduled to assume the office as the new Foreign Secretary from today.

After the post fell vacant, two other joint secretaries Sewa Lamsal and Amrit Rai were also in the race to become the new Foreign Secretary. Lamsal has now been provided the responsibility of the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson. Lamsal recently returned Nepal from Pakistan after completing her term as the ambassador, while Rai is currently serving as the Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations in New York.