Express News Service
NEW DELHI: After a long wait lasting almost two years, the 25th US Ambassador designate to India, Eric Garcetti, arrived in Delhi on Tuesday.
US President Joe Biden had been pitching Garcetti for this position since July 2021 but it was only last month (on March 15) that the Senate vote went in his favour and he was sworn in as the next Ambassador to India.
Garcetti was the mayor of Los Angeles and during the pandemic earned plaudits for building an aggressive response team, building the largest testing and vaccination sites in the world and adopting many of the earliest public health protections while keeping critical sectors of the economy going.
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An alumnus of Columbia University, he studied Hindi, Indian culture and history. He later got a Master’s degree in International and Public Affairs. He was also selected for a Rhodes scholarship and studied at Oxford and LSE.
“A fourth-generation native of Los Angeles, Garcetti is a proud card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild and is an avid pianist and photographer,” said the US embassy.
The last US Ambassador to India, Kenneth Juster, left on January 20th 2021 and President Biden nominated Garcetti, a fellow Democrat, in July as his replacement.
However, Garcetti’s nomination was held up amid allegations of him covering up for one of his top advisors who was charged with sexual harassment. Three fellow Democrats voted against Garcetti’s nomination, but he ultimately won. Many said that India was too important diplomatically to leave this position vacant any longer.
