B’luru gets US consulate, getting visas now on top of Jaishankar’s to-do list

Bengaluru: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar asserted on Friday that the opening of “long-in-waiting” US consulate in Bengaluru was the “very important milestone” in the bilateral ties and urged the American authorities to ensure that the mission starts visa operations at the earliest.

“This will be my No. 1 talking point with Secretary (of State Nominee Marco) Rubio when I go and see him. The sooner we get it done, the better it is,” said Jaishankar.

The EAM was in Bengaluru today to attend the “site dedication ceremony” of the fifth United States consulate in India, which will start operating in Bengaluru soon.

Jaishankar revealed that he had urged the United States to establish the consulate in Bengaluru and promised to open an Indian diplomatic mission in Los Angeles.

Delivering his speech, Eric Garcetti, US Ambassador to India, said the consulate in Bengaluru will not be offering visa services for the time being.

In his speech, Jaishankar pointed to statistics to nudge the US to get around to issuing visas from Bengaluru as early as possible.

“I was checking figures, and was very glad to see that last year, the RPO (Regional Passport Office) Bengaluru issued 8,83,000 passports. That’s just for one year. Do the math, and you will see how important it is to ensure that travel is smooth,” added Jaishankar.

He also added that there are three flights every week from here to San Francisco. “Hopefully, if Boeing and Airbus deliver, there’d be more. I think that’s a legitimate expectation,” said Jaishankar.

Jaishankar said a US consulate in Bengaluru has been a long-pending demand. “One, which I believe, Bengaluru legitimately deserved and expected,” he added. “I think Bengaluru has such an important place that it was for me an imperative that there is a permanent resident presence of American diplomats here,” said Jaishankar. He also said every time he had visited the city in the last five years, there was always somebody who would ask him, ‘so, when is that consulate coming?’. “It was from, really, I would say, the cross section of the society. It was from businessmen; it was from the tech world; it was from academics,” he added.