Absent ambassadors

Domestic politics and procedural wrangles hold up President Joe Biden’s diplomatic appointments

- REKHA DIXIT

It will be a year into his inauguration, soon. Yet, US president Joe Biden has appointed ambassadors to only eight countries so far. Much of the world with which the US has diplomatic ties remains without an American ambassador. This includes India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Japan, Australia, the UK and Russia.

India, Australia and Japan are members of the Quad, a new grouping that the US is bullish about. Australia and the UK form part of the new military trilateral, AUKUS, and are, therefore, important. China and Russia, as the main rivals of the US, are key appointments. So is Pakistan, important from its regional location.

Various domestic reasons have resulted in the slow progress with ambassadorial appointments. These range from domestic politics, both within the Democratic Party—differences between Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris—and from the Republicans in the senate, who have been successful in blocking many appointments. US ambassadors are political appointees, even those who hail from the foreign service cadre. And, the process for clearing a person for an ambassadorial post is a prolonged one.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s name, for instance, was announced on June 9 as the next envoy to India, but his nomination was sent to the senate only a month later, on July 13. It has been pending before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for five months. He is not likely to come to New Delhi before the New Year, given that the holiday mood is on in the US.