The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday cleared President Joe Biden’s nominee for ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, paving the way for his confirmation process going to the next stage — a vote on the floor of the Senate.

This is the second time the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has advanced Garcetti’s nomination, the first time was in December 2021, five months after Biden picked the then Los Angeles mayor to head the US diplomatic mission in India.

However, his confirmation by the full Senate was stalled for the next 17 months over alleged mishandling of sexual harassment charges against a top aide.

Despite the delay that has resulted in Roosevelt House in Delhi remaining vacant for more than two years now, the Biden administration kept batting for Garcetti and the President renominated him this January.

The renomination was necessitated as a new US Congress was convened on January 3, nullifying the earlier nominations awaiting confirmation.

On Wednesday, while responding to a question on whether there is optimism within the administration on the Senate floor vote and what it means to have an ambassador in India after two years, there was a note of urgency in the US state department’s response.

Spokesman Ned Price said: “We heartily applaud that. Put simply, the United States needs a confirmed ambassador in India. Our team on the ground, including chargés who have served in the place of an ambassador, have done extraordinary work. But this is one of the most consequential bilateral relationships we have. When Secretary Blinken was in New Delhi last week, much of the breadth and the depth of that relationship was on full display. And our embassy staff, our Mission India, deserves to have a Senate-confirmed ambassador who is —again, with the consent of the Senate — a representative ofnot only the secretary of state but also the President of the United States.

“There is no other country around the world that would put itself in a position to have a vacancy open in a strategically important and valuable place like India for two-plus years now. We certainly hope that the action that the Senate took today was — foretells additional action. It would be in our interest. It would be in the interest of India. It would be in the interests of both of our people to have a confirmed ambassador in place, and wehope that mayor and soon to-be ambassador Garcetti is able to take up that post before long.”

Compared to the first vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2021 when he sailed through, Garcetti met more opposition this time round with several Republicans opposing his nomination. But, in the final vote, two Republicans voted in his favour with the Democrats in the committee.

This, coupled with the Democrats improving their position in the Senate by a whisker, has raised expectations in his camp of Garcettimaking it through this time round.