External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar formally joins BJP

Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar formally joined the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) in the presence of the party's Working President JP Nadda at the Parliament House here on Monday.

Jaishankar came as a surprise addition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Union Cabinet. The 1977-batch IFS officer and Padma Shri awardee served as the Foreign Secretary for three years, from 2015 until his retirement in 2018, under the Modi-led NDA government.

Jaishankar is regarded as a close aide of Prime Minister Modi and was also hailed as his 'crisis manager' in matters of foreign affairs.

After retiring from the Indian Foreign Services in January 2018, Jaishankar was hired by Tata Group as the president of its global corporate affairs. The Padma Shri awardee is also known as the Indian government's key strategist for China and the US.

In 2008, he was a member of the team which negotiated the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal under the UPA government headed by then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Jaishankar took oath as the External Affairs Minister on May 30.

-ANI