S Jaishankar has been serving as the 30th Minister of External Affairs of the Government of India since 31 May 2019. He is the longest serving Minister of External Affairs since former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. He previously served as the Foreign Secretary of India from 2015 to 2018. He has been with the Indian Foreign Service since 1977. Positions held during this time include: 1979-81, Third and Second Secretary, Political, Embassy of India, Moscow; 1981-85, Undersecretary, Americas, and Policy Planning, Ministry of External Affairs; 1985-88, First Secretary, handling Political Affairs, Indian Embassy, Washington DC; 1988-90, First Secretary and Political Adviser to the Indian Peace Keeping Force, Sri Lanka; 1990-93, Counsellor, Commercial, Budapest; Director, East Europe; 1994-95, Press Secretary to the President of India. Since 2009, Ambassador of India to China. In January 2019, Jaishankar was conferred with Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour.