US continues to remain in 'close touch' with India: State Department on protests at Indian diplomatic facilities

Washington [US], March 31 (ANI): The United States has been taking the safety and security of the diplomatic missions that are present in our country "quite seriously", US Department of State Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Thursday.

Vedant Patel, in a press briefing, said that the US continues to be in close touch with India on a number of issues.

"We take the safety and security of the diplomatic missions that we host in the United States and the diplomats that work in them quite seriously," Patel said while responding to a question on 'whether the US government or the Indian government was in touch with State Department over the incidents that took place outside the consulate in San Francisco last week.

He also said, "We are in close touch with our Indian partners on a number of issues, but including on this we made sure to remain in close touch with them as well as the appropriate local entities, depending on where these various missions and consulates were located."

Vedant Patel's statement comes after the pro-Khalistan supporters in the US threatened the Indian embassy and Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu during their protest last week. Multiple incidents of protests by supporters of Khalistan have been staged outside the Indian embassy and the San Francisco Consulate.

Last week, the Indian Consulate in San Francisco was also attacked. Recently, a video surfaced on social media in which pro-Khalistani protestors gathered at the consulate in San Francisco, shouting slogans in support of Amritpal Singh and heckling staff as they abandoned the diplomatic mission.

When asked about the time when the new US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti will take charge, Vedant Patel said, "We were quite happy to see Ambassador Garcetti be confirmed. I don't have any specific date or timeline to share other than I know he's eager to get to New Delhi and present his credentials very soon. And I'm sure that will happen as soon as it can."

Last week, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was sworn in by US Vice President Kamala Harris as the new US Ambassador to India.

During the oath-taking ceremony, Garcetti said: "I Eric M. Garcetti, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter."

Harris then congratulated Garcetti upon the assumption of his duties. The Senate on March 15 (Local Time) confirmed the former mayor of Los Angeles, Eris Garcetti, to be the US ambassador to India.

Garcetti won the mandate by a vote of 52 to 42, a major victory for US President Joe Biden as well, who stuck by his political ally in the face of the allegations and the prolonged process that has left the world's most populous democracies without US representatives. (ANI)