New Delhi: Outgoing American ambassador Eric Garcetti on Monday described the people-to-people contacts as a very significant aspect of broader ties between India and the US amid concerns over the incoming Donald Trump administration's immigration policy.
Addressing an event, Garcetti said the US issued more than one million non-immigrant visas to Indians for the second year in a row in 2024 and that the wait times for all visa categories, except first-time visitor visas, had been eliminated.
Without making any direct reference, the US ambassador also underlined the need to prove the "haters wrong" as he highlighted the increasing people-to-people ties between the two countries.
"We never know what the future holds, but I will say this to my fellow Americans -- the more ties that we have to more Indians and the more ways we can find to grow our economic and educational exchanges, the stronger America and India will both be," he said.
"Let's prove any haters wrong, the way we always have, by meeting instead of tweeting, by investing instead of protesting, by connecting instead of objecting, and by bringing people together, acknowledging in this day and age there will always be some divisive voices," he said.
In his election rallies, Trump promised a radical shift to tighten Washington's immigration policy and vowed to carry out the "largest" domestic deportation operation in American history of undocumented immigrants.
Garcetti also described the four-million-strong Indian diaspora in the US as the "greatest secret weapon" in the relationship. "They enriched the tapestry of America. They fuel the vibrant connections between our two countries," he said.
Indian students and Indian American immigrants "are helping run our world's most important universities, our companies, our research entities, they're providing innovation, a record strong tax base", he said. Garcetti is likely to quit as the ambassador after Trump's inauguration on January 20.
The US ambassador said a series of steps were taken to process the visa applications of Indians including hiring a record number of consular officers and using AI to enhance the system.
"Since becoming ambassador, we have increased our visas by more than 60 per cent, eliminated wait times for all visa types, except for first-time visitor visas where the wait time is down 75 per cent from our peak," he said.
"For a second year in a row, we issued more than one million non-immigrant visas, including a record number of visitor visas. In fact, more than five million Indians currently hold a US visa," he said.
Garcetti noted that Americans and Indians have invested in the relationship and added: "The truth is, as I said, Americans love Indians and Indians love Americans."
"In a world that too often cedes space to the forces that seek to divide us both internally and internationally, let us be a voice, as we have been, to care for each other across the things that too often separate us, to care across geography and religion, language and income, identity and so much more," he said.
Garcetti also highlighted the importance of India-US cultural ties and, in this context, noted the return of stolen antiquities to India by the US authorities.
"You can't write about the future if you don't know the past. America believes that too much of Indian culture has been taken away from India, in some cases stolen from India."
Garcetti referred to the inking of the "landmark" US-India Cultural Property agreement that provides for preventing illegal trade of cultural properties. "We have also seen exceptional law enforcement cooperation in this area since 2016," he said.
