Ambassador Anil Wadhwa was born on 26 May, 1957 and was a member of the Indian Foreign Service from 1 July, 1979 to 31 May, 2017.
In his previous diplomatic assignments, he served as Third Secretary in the Commission of India, Hong Kong (Sep.1981 to Sep.1983); Second Secretary/ First Secretary in Embassy of India, Beijing (Nov.1983 to Feb.1987); Under Secretary/Deputy Secretary in Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi (Feb.1987-May 1989); UN Disarmament Fellow in Geneva (July-Nov.1989); First Secretary (Disarmament) at the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva (Dec.1989-Dec.1992); Counsellor in Embassy of India, Beijing (Jan.1993 – Jul.1993); Director/Joint Secretary on deputation to the Provisional Technical Secretariat and later the Technical Secretariat for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague (July 1993-July 2000; Chief Adviser, Ministry of External Affairs (Earthquake Relief) in Gujarat State, (Dec.2000 to Jan.2001), Joint Secretary, Central and Eastern Europe, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi (Mar.2001 to Feb.2004). Ambassador Wadhwa served as the Indian Ambassador to Poland and Lithuania (March 2004 to August 2007), to the Sultanate of Oman (August 2007 to September 2011), to the Kingdom of Thailand (Nov 2011 to Jan 2014) and to the Republic of Italy and San Marino ( March 2016 to May 2017 ). During this tenure, Ambassador Wadhwa has also served as a Permanent Representative of India to the Rome-based UN Agencies – FAO, IFAD and WFP. He was appointed President of the WFP Board on 22nd February, 2017.
Ambassador Wadhwa was Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi from 2014 – 2016 looking after South-East Asia, Australasia and Pacific, Gulf and West Asian regions, among other responsibilities. He was also the leader of the Senior officials to all meetings of ASEAN, ASEM, ACD, Arab League, Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, ARF and East Asia Summit. During this period he coordinated the evacuation of Indian nationals from Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.
From 1989-2000, Ambassador Wadhwa attended meetings of the First Committee in UNDC in New York first as a Delegate of India and later as Representative of the OPCW where he worked as the Head of the Media and Public Affairs Branch and subsequently the Government Relations and Political Affairs Branch.
As head of The Media and Public Affairs Branch of the OPCW, Ambassador Wadhwa interacted with the international and local media and contributed articles on chemical weapons disarmament for a number of reputed publications and the print media. During this period, he also organized a number of events to forge links between the OPCW and other organizations and to raise the profile of the organization.
Ambassador Wadhwa represented the OPCW in inter-agency meetings with the IAEA in Vienna, with the OECD in Geneva and NATO and WEU and World Customs Organization in Brussels. He has attended disarmament related meetings of the Biological Weapons Convention, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and ENMOD Convention and was involved in negotiations on the Chemical Weapons Convention as well as on Climate Change. Besides South East Asia, he has extensive experience in the Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iraq , Libya, Maghreb, the North Korean and ISIS issues. He has also been India’s chief delegate to the meetings of the small Island States and has organised two major conferences related to South Pacific States (FIPIC) in India and in Fiji. Ambassador Wadhwa has special interest, and has specialized in commercial work throught his career. He drew up the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) Agreement between India & China in 1954. This was the first ever agreement signed between the two countries since 1954. He headed the commercial wing of the Indian embassy in Beijing from 1983-87 and again from 1993 onwards. During his stints in Poland, Oman, Thailand and Italy, Ambassador Wadhwa was successful in attracting cutting edge technologies, investments and oversaw a substantial jump in trade between India and these countries by personally speaking at business related events.
He holds a Masters Degree in History with specialization in Chinese history and Medieval Indian history and architecture. He is fluent in English, Hindi and Chinese and knows French. Ambassador Wadhwa has contributed a number of articles, mainly in the field of disarmament and international security. He has also spoken at a number of international conferences.
He is married to Ambassador Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa and the couple have two sons.