Ministry of External Affairs (India)
government ministry of India
The Ministry of External Affairs (abbreviated as MEA; ISO: Vidēśa Mantrālaya) is a ministry of the Government of India tasked with India's foreign policy and relations. The Ministry is headed by the Minister of External Affairs, a member of the Prime Minister's Cabinet. The Minister is typically assisted by one or more junior ministers, known as Ministers of State (MoS) for External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary of the Republic of India is the senior-most non-elected official and the administrative head of the ministry.
The Ministry of External Affairs operates more than 200 diplomatic missions around the world through which it represents the Government of India on the international stage. In addition, the Ministry is responsible for India's representation at the United Nations and other international organizations. The Ministry is also responsible for the repatriation of Indian citizens in danger abroad and in the extradition of fugitives who have fled India. The Ministry of External Affairs may also advise other ministries and state governments in their interactions with foreign entities and brief them on pertinent international developments.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, consisting of elected members from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, is tasked with this ministry's legislative oversight.
As of March 2025, the ministry has the current sanctioned strength of IFS (A) is 1,177 and General Cadre IFS (B) is 2,379, Stenographers' Cadre is 1,209, other cadre is 1,150 and local cadre is 3,119.
“Ministry of External Affairs (India)” enters the record as government ministry of India. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ministry, External and Affairs can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Ministry of External Affairs (India)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ministry, External and Affairs provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3524953. VIAF identifies the subject as 126614115. The Library of Congress control number is n50054632. None of the 4 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2025.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ministry of External Affairs (India)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ministry of External Affairs (India) primary sources, Ministry of External Affairs (India) archive and Ministry research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ministry of External Affairs (India)”?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ministry of External Affairs (India)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.