Ambassador Rtn. Anil Trigunayat
Ambassador Rtn. Anil Trigunayat is Distinguished Fellow and Head of the West Asia Experts Group at the Vivekananda International Foundation, Distinguished Fellow at the United Service Institution of India, and President of the Millennial India International Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (MIICCIA), with over three decades of service in the Indian Foreign Service.
At the Vivekananda International Foundation, a New Delhi think tank established by senior security experts and diplomats, Anil has served as Distinguished Fellow since 2017 and leads its West Asia Experts Group, with core expertise in West Asia, Africa, and Russia. He is a prolific commentator on the region. Read The New Security Dynamic in West Asia, Syria is the Game Changer for Big Powers, The First India-GCC Foreign Ministers' Strategic Dialogue — Outcomes and Assessment, and his Contributions at the Vivekananda International Foundation.
He is also a Distinguished Fellow of the United Service Institution of India, India's oldest institution for defence, security, and strategic studies, founded in 1870. In August 2026, he was appointed Professor of Practice at Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University in Ahmedabad, formalizing more than a decade of lecturing and publishing on foreign and security policy.
Anil is the author of three books. Redlines Redrawn: Operation Sindoor and India's New Normal, coauthored with Major General Bipin Bakshi, Air Marshal Rajesh Kumar, and Brigadier Akhelesh Bhargava, dissects the build-up, execution, and consequences of India's May 2025 military response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack. It was reviewed in The Week and in the Journal of Defence Studies.
West Asian Dynamics and India's Strategic Imperative (2024) collects his commentary on India's extended neighborhood, including the I2U2 and India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor formats. He edited Evolving Security Dynamic in West Asia and India's Challenges (Pentagon Press, 2022), a volume of more than a dozen regional experts that was reviewed in Financial Express.
His scholarly writing includes the chapter The Unstable Middle East and India's Options in Political Faultlines in the Middle East (2023), Economic Diplomacy: A Practitioner's Perspective in Economic Diplomacy: India's Ascendancy in the 21st Century (2024), Asianism – The Indian Sub-Text (2022), and India in the Libyan Conundrum (2019).
Between 1983 and 2010, Anil served in Indian missions in Côte d'Ivoire, Bangladesh, Mongolia, the United States, Russia, Sweden, and Nigeria, working as Trade Commissioner in New York and as Deputy Head of Mission in Sweden, Russia, and Nigeria. In the Ministry of External Affairs he worked in the Economic, West Asia and North Africa, and Consular Divisions and served as Director General and Joint Secretary for the Gulf and Haj Divisions.
From 2010 to 2012, he was Deputy Chief of Mission, in the rank of Ambassador, at the Embassy of India in Moscow. From 2012 to 2014, he served as Ambassador of India to Libya and Malta, and from 2014 to 2016 as Ambassador of India to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, retiring from the service in May 2016.
During his postings in Nigeria and Libya he was engaged in conflict management and in assisting scores of stranded Indian nationals, an experience reflected in his specialization in managing India's interests in conflict zones. Economic diplomacy, attracting investment, and expanding exports were central to his work in the United States, Russia, the Middle East, and West and North Africa.
Since 2018, Anil has been President of the Millennial India International Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture, a New Delhi not-for-profit that fosters collaboration among industry, government, academia, and international partners. Read his President's Desk message.
He is Sr Adviser to the Economic Council of India and, since 2024, Adviser to the Center of Geoeconomics for the Global South (COGGS), which addresses the development challenges of the Global South. From April 2025 to April 2026, he served as an Independent Director on the board of NTPC Limited, one of India's leading power generation companies, completing his one-year term in April 2026. From 2022 to 2025, he was an Independent Director of WAPCOS Limited, the engineering consultancy under India's Ministry of Jal Shakti, and from 2021 to 2025 he sat on the Advisory Council of the India-Italy Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
Anil is Chairman of the Confederation of Education Excellence, a forum for raising the quality of education in India, and Patron of the Indus International Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank on foreign policy, strategy, economy, and climate change. He serves on the governing councils of Raisina House and the Usanas Foundation, a geopolitical and security affairs organization, and is a member of the governing council of the Asian-African Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Board of Advisers of the BRICS Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
He is a member of the Executive Committee and former Secretary of the Association of Indian Diplomats, the body of former Indian Ambassadors and High Commissioners, and an Honorary Member of the Brussels-based International Trade Council. He is a former Adviser to the National Cooperative Development Corporation, a Visiting Fellow at the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement and Visiting Distinguished Fellow at the IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, an expert of the Valdai Discussion Club, and an advisor to Defence Research and Studies. He is also a Peace Ambassador with UNITY EARTH, Australia, and an active Rotarian.
Anil earned his MSc in Physics in 1975 from Kumaun University and his M.A. in International Relations and Russian Studies in 1981 from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where he studied Russian history, culture, and language. From 1997 to 1998, he was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, affiliated with Wolfson College and Queen Elizabeth House, where he researched WTO and Regional Trading Blocs. He speaks French, Russian, and Spanish.
Anil is a TEDx speaker: watch Atmanirbhar Bharat – Shift from Globalization to Regionalisation from TEDxDTU. In August 2025, he delivered the Ministry of External Affairs Distinguished Lecture India's Foreign Policy – Changing Equations and Emerging Challenges at IISER Pune. Read India's Strategic Autonomy – Interview with Ambassador Rtn. Anil Trigunayat.
He writes regularly on foreign policy, economics, and regional affairs: read his Contributions in Deccan Herald, Contributions in Diplomatist, Contributions in India Narrative, Contributions in Madras Courier, Contributions in Bharat Shakti, and Contributions at Defence Research and Studies.
Anil lives in Gurgaon, Haryana, India.
Visit his LinkedIn profile, Academia.edu page, Usanas Foundation profile, Indus International Research Foundation profile, and Valdai Discussion Club profile. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and X.