Indian-Americans are happy that Eric Garcetti has been confirmed as the US ambassador to India and believe that his personal friendship with President Joe Biden would be very beneficial to the vital bilateral relations.
After an unusual wait of more than two years, the US Senate on Wednesday voted 52-42 to confirm the former mayor of Los Angeles.
The importance of having a full-time ambassador with tight ties to the White House was never felt more strongly than in this year, when India is hosting the G20 presidency and there are plans for a presidential visit as well as numerous other high-profile excursions.
“The United States-India relationship is tremendously vital and it's a very good thing we now have an Ambassador,” Senate Majority Leader Senator Charles Schumer said immediately after the Senate ratified the appointment of Garcetti.
President Biden thinks that our relationship with India is important and significant, and that Mayor Garcetti would be a capable ambassador, according to Olivia Dalton, principal deputy press secretary for the White House, who spoke to PTI.
The chairman of the Senate's foreign relations committee, Robert Menendez, and senators from both parties of the political spectrum were thanked by the president for their careful deliberation and today's unanimous decision to approve Mayor Garcetti, according to Dalton.
The connection between India and the US is robust and of tremendous strategic, economic, and cultural value, according to Senator Mark Warner, Co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus and Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
This alliance continues to have a lot of potential for the future since it was built on similar principles, is backed by expanding economic and commercial links, and is bolstered by the Indian diaspora in the US, Warner added.
As co-chair of the Senate India Caucus, he expressed his happiness that a Senate-confirmed ambassador will soon arrive in New Delhi.
In addition to congratulating Garcetti on his confirmation, House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks stated he is forward to collaborate with him to strengthen US-India ties.
Meeks added, “During the last two decades, our connection with India has developed dramatically, with greater bilateral collaboration on every area imaginable: from trade and investment to climate change to security and public health.
“Given the crucial significance of our connection, I'm happy we will finally have an ambassador in New Delhi who can assist advance our many shared objectives, including completing the foundation of the United States-India Gandhi-King Development Foundation,” he added.
Native Americans celebrated with joy.
M. R. Rangaswami, founder and chairman of Indiaspora, a significant non-profit that acts as a network of leaders of Indian descent in a variety of fields, congratulated Garcetti on his confirmation and said that through his difficult confirmation, Garcetti demonstrated his tenacity and dedication to the US-Indian relationship.
The fact that someone like Eric (Garcetti) would be in India to strengthen the connection, according to Rangaswamy, is both relieving and exciting for us.
Californian businessman and civic figure Yogi Chugh believes Garcetti would be a great ambassador for the US to India.
Throughout the future years, India's significance to the world economy and to national security will only increase. He said that it is essential to have a firm hand guiding American ties with India.
He said that he would be level-headed in guaranteeing that the US-India cooperation will be the most important of the twenty-first century.
“He has stressed the value of people-to-people relationships in his dealings with the Indian-American community, and I am convinced that this is something Ambassador Garcetti will continue to pursue throughout his time,” Chug added.
After more than 600 days, Khanderao Kand of the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies expressed his satisfaction that the US will finally have an ambassador in India.
As the head of the G20, India, and given the long-standing strategic relationship between the US and India, this nomination is crucial.
The confirmation of the president's choice for ambassador to India by the Senate shows that the bipartisan consensus surrounding US-India relations is still firmly in place, according to Ronak Desai, a prominent India practitioner at Paul Hastings and expert at Harvard University's Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute.
“In Washington, Democrats and Republicans agree on astonishingly little these days. One of the few exceptions is how crucial it is to preserve close connections between the US and India. Partisanship and any one party or individual, he continued, have no bearing on the bilateral relationships.
Desai said that it was obvious to authorities in Washington and New Delhi that the position was becoming unsustainable.
The position is just too significant to have been unfilled for this long. The White House and senators on both sides of the aisle deserve praise for moving; the confirmation was long overdue.
“A Senate-confirmed ambassador must lead our mission in Delhi at this crucial juncture in US-India relations. It's important to have a US ambassador to India, he remarked.
Desai elaborated on this by claiming that John Kenneth Galbraith played a crucial role in organising the US reaction to the Sino-Indian War in 1962 and securing US help for India.
During the Bush administration, Robert Blackwill was a key architect of the historic US-India civilian nuclear agreement. During the Obama Administration, Rich Verma played a key role in bringing the two nations together on the historic Paris Climate Accord, he said.
US ambassadors are important, particularly in India, according to Desai.
Ajay Bhutoria, a prominent member of the Indian-American community, emphasised Garcetti's work as a co-chair of the Biden-Harris campaign as well as his experience as the former mayor of Los Angeles, where he developed excellent contacts with corporate and political elites.
“I'm delighted to congratulate Eric Garcetti on being named India's ambassador. His leadership and expertise will be of immeasurable value in fostering closer ties between the US and India.
“As a community leader, I know that this nomination will have a great influence on the Indian-American community and the larger South Asian population in the United States,” said Bhutoria, a member of President Biden's Advisory Committee on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.
He said that Garcetti's appointment would assist strengthen the connection between the United States and India, which is already robust and expanding.
“Democracy, diversity, and innovation are among the many shared ideals between the United States and India. I am certain that Ambassador Garcetti will exert great effort to strengthen this connection and advance collaboration between our two nations, added Bhutoria.
He said, “I look forward to working with Ambassador Garcetti to further our ties with India and to advance the goals of the Indian-American community.
