Romesh Bhandari is a former Indian Foreign Secretary

Indian Foreign Secretary

An Indian Foreign Secretary is the top diplomat for Indian Foreign Relations, who is appointed in the Ministry of External Affairs Office. Foreign Secretaries are experienced IFS officers, who are ambassadors to foreign nations....

, former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi

Delhi

Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and former governor of Tripura

Tripura

Tripura is a state in North-East India, with an area of . It is the third smallest state of India, according to area. Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to the east. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken are...

, Goa

Goa

Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

 and Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

.

Career

He joined the Indian Foreign Service

Indian Foreign Service

The Indian Foreign Service is the foreign service of India. It is the body of career diplomats of India.The Indian Foreign Service is part of the Central Civil Services of the Government of India...

 (IFS) in 1950 as the Vice-Consul at the consulate in New York. He was minister in the Indian Embassy at Moscow from 1970-1971. He was the ambassador to Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 and Permanent Representative to UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific , located in Bangkok, Thailand, is the regional arm of the United Nations Secretariat for the Asian and Pacific region. It was established in 1947 to encourage economic cooperation among its member states...

 from 1971 to 1974 and ambassador to Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 from 1974 to 1976. He then returned to the Ministry of External Affairs

Ministry of External Affairs (India)

The Ministry of External Affairs is the foreign ministry of India. It is the Indian government agency responsible for the foreign relations of India. The Minister of External Affairs holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers. The current minister is S M Krishna...

as Additional Secretary from February 1977 to July 1979. He was promoted as Secretary on 1 August 1979 and was appointed Foreign Secretary on 1 February 1985. He retired from service on 31 March 1986.

He has the unique distinction of bringing back to India, hijackers of an Indian Airlines Aircraft from Dubai in 1984.

He was the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi from 4 August 1988 to December 1989 and of Andaman and Nicobar islands from December 1989 to 24 February 1990.
He was the governor of Tripura from 15 August 1993 to 15 June 1995, governor of Goa from 16 June 1995 to 18 July 1996 and governor of Uttar Pradesh from 19 July 1996 to 17 March 1998.