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Joe Biden names close political ally Eric Garcetti to be US ambassador to India
India would like a US ambassador to be someone with an open line of communications with the White House, which Eric Garcetti, a close political ally of US President Joe Biden, is likely to have.
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has named Eric Garcetti, a close political ally, as his nominee for ambassador to India.
Garcetti, 50, is currently serving as mayor of Los Angeles.
The White House announced his nomination on Friday along with three other ambassadors.
Garcetti was co-chair of Biden’s presidential campaign and was also part of the committee that Biden had appointed to look for his running mate. After the election, Garcetti was named one of the co-chairs of the inauguration committee. He was widely expected to get a cabinet berth and reports have suggested he was being considered for secretary housing.
Like all host countries, India would like a US ambassador to be someone with an open line of communications with the White House, which Eric Garcetti is likely to have, according to people familiar with these matters. It’s just more efficient and less time-consuming to not have to go through the usual state department bureaucracy, said the same people.
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Biden’s ambassadorial nominee for India will be one of the more high-profile announcements for the administration given the focus the US president has brought on ties with India, bilaterally and as part of the Quad with Japan and Australia.
President Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have spoken four times already in 100 days since the American leader took office. And they have met virtually as part of the Quad and the summit of 40 world leaders that Biden hosted in April.
Eric Garcetti has been the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles since 2013, following 12 years as a member of the City Council, including six as Council President.
The White House announcement said as mayor, Garcetti oversees the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere, the largest municipal utility in the country, and one of the busiest airports in the world.
Eric Garcetti co-founded Climate Mayors and led more than 400 US mayors to adopt the Paris Climate agreement. 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, said the White House.
Garcetti’s familiarity with the region owes also to his 12 years as Intelligence Officer in the US Navy Reserve Component. Garcetti served under the Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet and the Defense Intelligence Agency, retiring in 2017 as a Lieutenant.
He is a Rhodes Scholar and studied at Queen’s College, Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Science. His website as LA mayor says he is also a jazz pianist and photographer.
