The bilateral relationship between the U.S. and India is entering a defining chapter, with the Indo-Pacific at the forefront of geopolitical debate, as both nations navigate developments in trade policy, technology, energy, and security. The Pacific Council is honored to host Ambassador (ret.) Eric Garcetti, former U.S. Ambassador to India and former Mayor of Los Angeles, in conversation with Dr. Jerrold D. Green, Interim President & CEO, on January 28 at 6 pm PT in Beverly Hills, to discuss how the United States can engage India in ways that advance shared democratic values, support economic and technological resilience, and contribute to long-term stability across the Indo-Pacific region.

Within this context, the interplay between trade policy and personality-driven politics, including the relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump, has added additional layers of complexity, underscoring how individual leadership styles shape diplomatic priorities, economic negotiations, and perceptions of strategic alignment.

Why it’s important:

• New Delhi is negotiating a trade deal with Washington, after it was slapped with 50% tariffs, half of which was direct punishment for New Delhi’s continued purchases of discounted Russian oil.
• India’s future promise encouraged American administrations to cultivate ties as a way of hedging against growing Chinese power in Asia. But the second Trump administration has appeared to care little about India’s potential. 
• At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in September, Prime Minister Modi met with both Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in what some viewed as a choreographed political signal to Washington.

Please send questions in advance to events@pacificcouncil.org.

Guest Speaker

Eric M. Garcetti, a proven political and diplomatic leader, serves as Ambassador for Global Climate Diplomacy for C40 Cities, leading global climate negotiations on behalf of all the world’s cities, states, and regions.

From 2023 to 2025, Garcetti served as U.S. Ambassador to India, leading America’s second-largest diplomatic mission and delivering record gains in trade, visas, student exchanges, defense cooperation, and health partnerships between the world’s two largest democracies.

Previously, Garcetti served on the Los Angeles City Council for 12 years before winning election in 2013 as the youngest mayor in the city’s history and winning re-election in 2017 by the widest margin ever recorded. As Mayor, he brought about record low crime, record high jobs and business starts, and left behind the largest budget surplus Los Angeles has ever achieved. He won the bid for Los Angeles to host the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Governing magazine named Garcetti Public Official of the Year.

In 2019, Garcetti was elected Chair of C40 Cities, a network of nearly 100 of the world’s largest and most influential cities committed to leading on climate action. He currently serves on the boards of the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Global Diplomacy Council of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a former Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Columbia University Center for Global Energy Policy, and has taught international relations, diplomacy, and world affairs at USC and Occidental College.

An intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy for 12 years, Ambassador Garcetti earned his B.A. and Master’s in International Affairs as a John Jay Scholar at Columbia University before studying as a Rhodes Scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford, and the London School of Economics. He has studied and worked in Japan, Burma, India, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and the United Kingdom. A fourth-generation Angeleno, Ambassador Garcetti lives in the San Fernando Valley with his family and is a proud card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild, as well as an avid pianist and photographer.

Presider

Dr. Jerrold D. Green is the Global Advisor to Cedars-Sinai Hospital, a Los Angeles-based healthcare organization, and a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations. He is also the Interim President and CEO of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a position he previously occupied for 16 years while serving as a Research Professor of Communication, Business, and International Relations at the University of Southern California. Green was a Partner at Best Associates in Dallas, Texas, a merchant banking firm with global operations. He also occupied senior management positions at the RAND Corporation, where he was awarded the RAND Medal for Excellence. Dr. Green has a B.A. (summa cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts/Boston, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. His academic career began at the University of Michigan, and he subsequently joined the University of Arizona, where he became a Professor of Political Science and Sociology as well as Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Green has lived and worked in Egypt, where he was a Fulbright Fellow, Iran, and Israel. He has been a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Science's West Asian Studies Center in Beijing; a visiting lecturer at the Havana-based Center for African and Middle East Studies (CEAMO), a fellow at the Australian Defense College, and delivered papers at conferences sponsored by the Iranian Institute of International Affairs in Tehran. Dr. Green led three U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored fact-finding delegations to Afghanistan, one to Iraq, and has served as an observer at the legal proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Read More