Biden nominates Garcetti as Ambassador to India

 U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday nominated Los An- geles Mayor Eric Garcetti to the post of Ambassador to India. Mr. Garcetti’s nomina- tion, which had been ex- pected for weeks, was an- nounced by the White House as part of a set of am- bassadorial nominations. Mr. Garcetti, 50, who has been the Mayor of Los An- geles since 2013, is a former intelligence officer from the Navy and is a Rhodes Scho- lar. He also served on the Ca- lifornia Board of the Human Rights Watch, a rights advo- cacy organisation that has frequently criticised the In- dian government’s rights record. Mr. Garcetti, in a state- ment, said he was honoured to accept the nomination and would “forge partner- ships and connections that will help strengthen Los An- geles’ place on the world stage”. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Garcetti would replace Kenneth Juster, a Trump appointee who was the Ambassador till January. The Embassy in New Delhi is being run by interim Chargé

d’affaires Atul Keshap, a South Asia hand and senior career diplomat. Mr. Garcetti’s closeness to Mr. Biden is seen as a key factor in his nomination. Having someone in New Del- hi who “can call Joe” is im- portant to both New Delhi and Washington. “We are excited that Presi- dent Biden has nominated a reputed leader who has pro- ven himself on several fronts,” said M.R. Rangaswa- mi, a Silicon Valley-based in- vestor, who runs a diaspora organisation called Indias- pora. “It speaks volumes to the importance of the U.S.- India relationship that a close and trusted ally of Pre- sident Biden may be Ameri- ca’s point person in Delhi.” The India-U.S. relation-

ship has strong support on both sides of the aisle in Washington, though it is not without its critics, particu- larly with regard to the Modi government’s record on de- mocratic processes and mi- nority rights. As India expe- rienced its second wave of COVID-19 earlier this sum- mer, the U.S. government, the private sector and indivi- duals contributed over $500 million in assistance, ac- cording to U.S. government estimates. The defence and security dimensions have also been growing. While bilateral trade has been growing, the trading relationship has had challenges, especially around data flows, agricultu- ral commodities and prefe- rential trade status for India. The two countries have sought to develop their rela- tionship via multilateral fo- rums (such as the U.N. Se- curity Council) and smaller “plurilateral” groupings such as the Quad — India, the U.S., Japan and Australia. Plans are in the works for a summit level in-person meeting of the Quad likely to be held in Washington this autumn.