Foreign Secretary is the title used in the United Kingdom and several Commonwealth states (including India and Pakistan, though with differing meanings) for the official heading the ministry that conducts foreign relations. In the UK, the full title is Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, a Cabinet post that absorbed the Department for International Development in 2020 to form the FCDO. The role is broadly analogous to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in most states or the Secretary of State in the United States.
Core responsibilities typically include: setting and articulating foreign policy; instructing ambassadors and high commissioners; negotiating treaties and bilateral agreements; representing the state at multilateral fora such as the UN General Assembly, G7, and G20 foreign ministers' meetings; and overseeing consular protection of nationals abroad. The post-holder is usually a senior figure in the governing party and frequently a contender for, or former holder of, the premiership.
Usage varies by country. In India and Pakistan, Foreign Secretary refers instead to the senior civil servant heading the Ministry of External Affairs (India) or Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Pakistan) — a permanent bureaucratic role, with the political minister titled External Affairs Minister or Foreign Minister respectively. Model UN delegates and IR students should be careful to distinguish the political Foreign Secretary (UK model) from the administrative Foreign Secretary (South Asian model), as the authority, accountability, and tenure differ substantially.
The Foreign Secretary typically signs credentials, exchanges diplomatic notes, and issues demarches. In parliamentary systems, the holder answers questions in the legislature and may be bound by collective cabinet responsibility on foreign policy positions.
Example
In 2022, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss visited Moscow to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a final round of pre-invasion diplomacy over Ukraine.