Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is an Indian politician and retired diplomat who is serving as the Minister of External Affairs since 2019. He is the longest-serving minister for External Affairs to hold the portfolio exclusively. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he is a member of parliament in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament. He previously served as the foreign secretary of India from 2015 to 2018. In January 2019, he was conferred with the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour.