US President Joe Biden on Friday nominated Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as his ambassador to India. He would be the replacement for Kenneth Juster, the Indian envoy under former president Trump.
Garcetti is the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States, after New York City. As the news came out, the Indian-American community welcomed the nomination. Tweeting her best wishes to Garcetti, US-India Business Council president Nisha Biswal said: “Excited to see Mayor Garcetti put his bits of Hindi to good use and advance the US-India partnership”.
Garcetti’s connections with India may not be known to many. Garcetti has travelled several times to India. In college, he also spent a year studying Hindi and Urdu.
Garcetti co-founded climate mayors and led more than 400 US mayors to adopt the Paris Climate agreement. Speaking about India, the pandemic and climate change issues, Garcetti told the Los Angeles Times: “We can’t get our climate goals without India hitting its climate goals. We can’t see the economy truly reopened to international commerce and tourism until COVID is under control.”
“He has lived and conducted field work on nationalism, ethnicity, and human rights in Southeast Asia and Northeast Africa,” the White House said in a statement.
The White House said, “He is the current Chair of C40 Cities a network of 97 of the world’s biggest cities taking bold climate action (and) has led the organisation’s engagement and expansion in India, as well as C40’s global response to the Covid pandemic through the sharing of best practices and resources.” New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai are active members of C40 cities.
“Biden's nomination of Garcetti to serve as next ambassador to India is an important step forward in the US-India partnership as the two countries work together to end the pandemic, increase economic cooperation, and ensure regional security,” Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said.