Bharat Joshi

Biography

Bharat was born in Croydon, United Kingdom in 1969.

He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1995 and has had diplomatic postings to the Gambia, Dhaka and Qatar. He was most recently British High Commissioner to Cameroon, and non-Resident Ambassador to Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Central African Republic.

Before that he worked as a Private Secretary to two British Ministers, as well as in various Departments of the FCO including the European Union Department and Press Office.

Bharat has experience of crisis management and has been deployed to the scenes of major incidents involving British nationals, including after the bombing of the British Consulate-General in Istanbul in 2003.

Bharat’s varied career has been spent dealing with a full range of HMG objectives, including promoting political and economic reform and improved human rights; improved UK prosperity through trade; climate change and UN policy issues. A major part of his portfolio in Chennai is focused on enhancing the trade and investment partnership between the UK on the one hand, and Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry on the other.

Personal information:

Bharat has been married to Bhakti for 17 years and they have two daughters. His interests are cricket, badminton, history, reading and travelling.

Bharat speaks English, French, Gujarati and Hindi and Spanish, and is learning to speak Tamil.

Previous roles in government

  • British Deputy High Commissioner Chennai
  • British High Commissioner to Cameroon