Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur
Ambassador Nagaraj Kakanur is the Chef de Cabinet to the President of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Prior to this, Mr. Kakanur was the Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations from January 2019.
Ambassador Kakanur is a career diplomat. An Indian Foreign Service Officer of the 1998 batch, Mr. Naidu is a fluent Chinese speaker and has served in China in four separate stints. At the Indian Embassy in Beijing, he served as Third and Second Secretary (Special Projects) between 2000 and 2003. Between 2003 and 2006, he served as Consul (Political and Commercial) at the Indian Consulate in Hong Kong. From 2009 to 2012, he served as First Secretary and Counsellor (Economic & Commercial Affairs) at the Indian Embassy in Beijing. He took over as the Consul General at the Indian Consulate in Guangzhou, China from 2013 to 2015.
After his return to the Foreign Ministry in New Delhi, Ambassador Naidu served as the Joint Secretary/Director General of the Economic Diplomacy Division in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2015 to 2017. During his term, the Economic Diplomacy Division of the MEA was given the “SKOCH Platinum First Prize for Smart Governance” in 2017. Mr. Naidu was also the National Coordinator for establishing the treaty-based body International Solar Alliance in India (which has General Assembly Observer status). He also served as a Board member in a number of Public Sector organizations including India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO), Water & Power Consultancy Services Ltd. (WAPCOS), Invest India, and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT).
From 2017 to 2018, he served as Joint Secretary/Director General of the Europe West Division. During this period, Mr. Naidu was responsible for India’s bilateral political engagement with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco and the European Union.
Mr. Naidu has a Master’s in Law and Diplomacy from Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy (Class of 2008). He is married and has two children.
