- Sunday, March 02, 2025
By: India Weekly Staff
US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, who last month became the first full-fledged post holder after two years, will be leading an ambitious effort to deepen America’s cooperation with India, including in defence and economic sectors, according to the White House.
Garcetti, a former mayor of Los Angeles, was officially sworn in as the US envoy to India on March 24 by US vice president Kamala Harris during a ceremonial event in Washington.
The US senate confirmed the 52-year-old Garcetti’s nomination earlier in March, ending a protracted hiatus of over two years to fill the key diplomatic position.
Garcetti’s nomination was pending before the US Congress since July 2021 when he was nominated by president Joe Biden.
“The president has said, when we look at the relationship with India, it’s one of the most consequential relationships that the United States has in the world. That still stands,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference on Tuesday (4).
“Ambassador Garcetti will be leading an ambitious effort to deepen our cooperation with India in critical and emerging technologies, expand our defense cooperation, and strengthen our economic and people-to-people ties,” Jean-Pierre said.
This is one of the most consequential relationships that the US has in the world, she said.
“So, it’s an important relationship that the president sees,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Garcetti, who is headed to New Delhi this month, was not confirmed by the Senate in President Biden’s first two years in office amid concerns by some lawmakers that he had not adequately handled allegations of sexual assault and harassment against a former senior adviser.
Biden renominated him to the same position in January this year.
Garcetti’s supporters argued that geopolitical concerns were too important to leave India without an ambassador. The US Embassy in India has been without an ambassador since January 2021, the longest stretch in the history of US-India relations that the post has sat vacant, since Kenneth Juster, the last US envoy in New Delhi, stepped down after the change of government in the US.
(PTI)
