Last Update: April 12, 2023, 00:31 AM IST
Garcetti is known as a committed public servant, teacher and diplomat. (Image: AP)
The former mayor of Los Angeles was nominated for the high-profile post of ambassador to India two years ago
US Ambassador-designate Eric Garcetti arrived in India on Tuesday night, two years after the then US envoy Kenneth Juster stepped down when Joe Biden took over as the US President. Garcetti, considered a close aide of Biden, was confirmed to the post by the US Senate about a month ago.
The former mayor of Los Angeles was nominated for the high-profile post of ambassador to India two years ago.
But the nomination was not confirmed by the Senate at first after concerns from some lawmakers that Garcetti, as then-Los Angeles mayor, had not adequately handled allegations of sexual assault and harassment against one of his aides.
“Hello, Ambassador Designate Eric Garcetti! We are thrilled to welcome you to #IncredibleIndia and look forward to working with you to build an even stronger relationship between our two great nations,” tweeted the US Embassy in India.
The embassy has been without an ambassador since January 2021, perhaps the longest such stretch in the history of US-India relations.
Juster, the last US envoy in New Delhi, will step down in January 2021 after Biden becomes US President.
Garcetti is known as a committed public servant, teacher and diplomat. On March 15, he was confirmed in a bipartisan vote as the 25th US Ambassador to India.
Garcetti was elected as the 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles in 2013, after serving 12 years as a member of the Los Angeles City Council.
He was then the youngest mayor in Los Angeles history, and was re-elected in 2017 with the largest margin the city had ever recorded.
Garcetti also served as a naval officer in the reserve component for 12 years and was selected as a Rockefeller Next Generation Leadership Fellow, an inaugural Asia 21 Fellow of the Asia Society, a Young Fellow of the French-American Foundation, Aspen I was a Rodale Fellow. Institute, and a Reboot Fellow. In 2005, she was awarded the New Frontier Award, given annually by the Kennedy family and the Kennedy Library to a young elected official who embodies President Kennedy’s vision of service.
Garcetti earned a BA degree from Columbia College, Columbia University, as a John Jay Scholar.
Garcetti studied Hindi and Indian culture and history at Columbia and earned a master’s degree at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. After graduation, Garcetti was selected as a Rhodes Scholar, studying at The Queen’s College, Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
While in England, he met his now-wife, Amy Ellen Weakland, a fellow member of his Rhodes Scholar class.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
