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“Namaste, Ambassador-Designate Eric Garcetti! We’re thrilled to welcome you to Incredible India and work with you to build even stronger ties between our two great nations,’’ tweeted the US embassy shortly after the arrival of Garcetti, who has studied Hindi and also Indian culture and history while at Columbia University.
The former Los Angeles mayor’s appointment was delayed because of a legal battle that followed allegations that he had papered over charges of sexual harassment against an aide. The appointment of Garcetti was finally confirmed in a bipartisan vote by the Senate last month, 20 months after he was nominated.
The youngest mayor in LA’s history, Garcetti’s arrival comes at a time both sides are grappling with issues related to Russia’s actions in Ukraine and also before a likely visit by Biden, his first as president, for the G20 summit in September. While the focus has been on Ukraine in the recent past, cooperation in the Indo-Pacific remains a top priority for both countries, not least because of China’s increasing assertiveness. In a sign of the importance it attaches to this cooperation, India held a meeting of the Quad foreign ministers – the first on Indian soil – the morning after the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting and while Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov was still in Delhi.
While an official announcement is still awaited, PM Narendra Modi is also likely to travel to the US in June for what will be his first state visit to the country.
As mayor, Garcetti was elected by his global peers to serve as Chair of C40 Cities – a network of 97 of the world’s biggest cities taking bold climate action. At COP26 in Glasgow, he represented the world’s urban leaders delivering the Cities Race to Zero pledge, a commitment of over 1,000 global cities to implement net-zero carbon futures.
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