Mr. Vijay Gokhale completed holds a post-graduate degree in history from the
University of Delhi. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1981 until his
retirement from public service in January 2020.

Mr. Gokhale served in Indian diplomatic missions in Hongkong, Hanoi, Beijing
and New York. He served successively as the Indian Ambassador to Malaysia,
Germany and China from January 2011 until October 2017. From January 2018
until January 2020 he was appointed as the Foreign Secretary to the
Government of India.

Since his retirement from public service, Mr. Gokhale teaches at the Symbiosis
International University in Pune. He is also Non-resident Senior Fellow at
Carnegie India. He has written extensively on matters relating to China. He has
authored four books – (1) Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest
(HarperCollins, May 2021); (2) The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with
India (Penguin Randomhouse, July 2021); (3) After Tiananmen: The Rise of China

(HarperCollins, September 2022); and Crosswinds: Nehru, Zhou and the Anglo-
American Competition over China (Penguin Randomhouse, January 2024).

The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India, was awarded the
Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism (Non-Fiction books),
2021.

He has also published op-ed pieces in the New York Times, The Berlin Tages
Spiegel, Handelsblatt, Foreign Policy, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, The
Hindu, The Indian Express and the Times of India.

Mr. Gokhale lives with his spouse, Vandana, in Pune, India.