Eric GarcettiLikely To Be Named US Envoy ToIndia

President Biden is said to nominate Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti,50 to be the U.S. ambassador to India; and former senior State Department official Nicholas Burns to serve as his ambassador to China. With these selections, Biden is turning to a longtime political ally and a seasoned diplomat to serve in two of the country’s highest-profile diplomatic postings.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti,50, is likely to be nominated as U.S. ambassador to India by President Biden. The Associated Press reported last week that Biden is expected to announce that Garcetti will be picked for the post, citing a person familiar with the matter.Biden, who has yet to announce any of his picks to fill ambassador posts, has been planning to roll out the list all at once, a strategic move that has allowed speculation to build around several likely nominees. Sources also stated, former senior State Department official Nicholas Burns to serve as his ambassador to China, according to a person familiar with the matter.With these selections, Biden is turning to a longtime political ally and a seasoned diplomat to serve in two of the country’s highest-profile diplomatic postings.

It was not clear when either nomination would be announced, according to the person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to publicly comment on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House declined to comment on either Garcetti or Burns and noted that “no one is final until they’re announced.”Garcetti and Burns, if confirmed by the Senate, would come to their postings at high-pressure moments in the U.S. relationships with India and China. Garcetti, if confirmed, would be dispatched to India as it has been overwhelmed by a surge in coronavirus infections and deaths. India’s death toll is the third highest reported in the world after the U.S. and Brazil, and true numbers are thought to be significantly greater.

Garcetti had considered a 2020 White House bid and later on, became part of Biden’s inner circle, emerged as a widely discussed possibility to join Biden’s Cabinet last year. But he took himself out of the running, saying the raging coronavirus crisis made it impossible for him to step away.The two-term mayor would leave LA with an uneven record. He has been credited with continuing a transit buildup in a city choked with traffic, establishing tougher earthquake safety standards for thousands of buildings, and steering the city through the deadly pandemic as it became a hot spot for infections. Cases have fallen steeply in the city and some restrictions have been rolled back, consistent with the trajectory in the state.

Garcetti’s popularity has slipped in recent years, and Black Lives Matter protesters had banged drums outside his official residence earlier this year to urge Biden not to choose Garcetti for a Cabinet position. Garcetti was overmatched by a crisis of homelessness that became a national embarrassment despite the massive jump in government spending to fight it. Many streets and sidewalks remain cratered and crumbling, despite his early pledge to make fixing them a cornerstone of his administration.In picking Garcetti, the president would be rewarding a loyalist who was one of his national campaign co-chairs, who served on the committee that vetted his pool of vice presidential contenders, and who served as one of several co-chairs for Biden’s inaugural committee.

Garcetti was elected mayor in 2013 and reelected in 2017. He is serving a longer second term — of 5½ years, as opposed to four — because voters in 2015 backed a one-time change in the city’s election dates. Garcetti’s possible departure for India comes as the city slowly recovers from the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic and grapples with an ongoing homelessness crisis.The overseas position, if it goes to the mayor, will be viewed as a reward to a longtime supporter of Biden’s. The India posting would allow the politically ambitious Garcetti to burnish his foreign policy credentials ahead of a possible future White House run. That’s a conspicuous gap on his resume — the Ivy League graduate and Rhodes scholar has spent two decades in city government, either as mayor or a city councilman.

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