The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kenneth Juster as the next US Ambassador to India, clearing the decks for confirmation with a formal Senate floor vote that is now regarded as a mere formality. The nomination of 62-year-old Juster, an old India hand who has played a key role in US-India negotiations in the run-up to the landmark civil nuclear deal, was cleared by a voice vote.
Once confirmed by the full Senate, Juster will take charge at the Roosevelt House in New Delhi, succeeding Richard Verma, the first-ever Indian-American envoy to India.
Juster is expected to take up the assignment well ahead of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad towards the end of November. Co-hosted by India and the US, the summit, with its theme of “Women First, Prosperity for All”, will have a large American participation with President Trump’s daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump leading the high-powered US delegation.