HYDERABAD: Jennifer Larson, who recently took charge as Consul-General in Hyderabad, is no stranger to India, having served for four years as the deputy principal officer at Mumbai. As a diplomat, she has served as director and acting DAS of the office of India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives affairs. Earlier, she was a spokesperson at the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
Larson also served as principal officer in Benghazi, Libya, and then acting deputy chief of mission in Tripoli, and earlier, in different capacities in Pakistan, France, Sudan, Jerusalem and Lebanon.
Prior to joining the US Foreign Service, she worked as a talk show producer, after her education at the University of California, Berkeley, in Comparative Literature (Arabic, Spanish and French) and Middle East Studies.
She interacted exclusively with Deccan Chronicle, her first interview to any English media organisation, after taking up her new role. Excerpts.
How does United States of America view the news of border skirmishes between India and China?
A. The US has been steadfast for over 60 years in saying that we view Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India. We most certainly hope that India and China should continue to use their various diplomatic and communications channels that exist to resolve any difference. We are seeing many series and rounds of talks between the two nations, but we hold the territory belongs to India. We need moderation on all hands.
How do you view Asia, the Pacific Ocean region, and in it, as well as in a larger global context, the role of India, and the relationship between the US and India?
A. We view the Indo-Pacific region and our focus on it, especially during the last years since the Biden Administration has taken charge as very central to our entire strategic viewpoint. There have been numerous activities, and discussions in Washington, and I have been part of some of them.
India is at the apex and core of this strategy, whether it is through the Quad, or bilateral relationships. We view the relationship with India as one of a strategic partnership, between two great democracies, with shared values, and the ties are strong. A foundation is the strong people to people contact, whether it is students, technology workers or businesses.
How is the Quad going ahead?
A. Quad continues to grow stronger and its strength it is an informal grouping of four like-minded nations that come together when needed to address different issues. We continue to meet and discuss, whether it is strategic affairs, defence issues, illegal fishing and several other concerns. In fact, recently Jake Sullivan, our national security advisor, announced the Quad fellowships, and we hardly had to do much work to garner interest amongst Indian students, with over a thousand applicants for the 30 odd fellowships.
Having taken charge of the US Consulate General of the Hyderabad region, how do you see our bilateral relationship, and the role and contribution of this region (comprising the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha) to the larger connection?
The bilateral relationship is very strategic and strong. We approach all things as two partners with shared values. In particular, relationships have been growing in defence cooperation to a great extent. The mutual trade has gone up eight-fold in the last 20 years but it reveals only the size, not all nuances of our relationship. For example, the number of American companies and their growth, or number of investors from India who want to do business in the US, and so on.
The business between our two countries is best exemplified by this region. There are a number of state and city-level business delegations that come from the US, and we help them explore opportunities here in this region, particularly in Hyderabad. The government of Telangana is excellent to work with, with their proactive policies and support in attracting investments.
As everyone knows, Hyderabad is home to many of the largest US companies from tech to defence, and their presence here is amongst the largest in the world outside of US. We are excited to see them as leaders in showcasing diversity and green technology.
As part of our commitment to the region, we are building one of the largest facilities in Hyderabad, it is almost ready and I hope we can move in around April - certainly the first half of 2023. We will, of course, need some more time to fully staff up, but it should further strengthen our ties.
As of October, nearly 40 per cent of in-person student visa applicants in India this year were from the Telugu states, and I did not know this but Telugu is the fastest growing language in America. I would have thought it would be Chinese or Arabic, but it is Telugu. It speaks for our ties, historically and going forward.
How are the cultural and people exchange programme and ties?
A. We will do a lot of activities going forward, in the post-pandemic phase. We will start cultural ties, we had this jazz concert some time ago, but more will happen in months ahead. We have also restarted in-person exchanges under the International Visitor Leadership Programme, a state department initiative to send leaders around the world on short-term study visits to the United States. But I hope to get more American students to India, and this region, so they benefit from the rich cultural and diversity.
One concern of students, their families, tech workers, businessfolk and those others who wish to travel to the US for personal reasons is the long queues and waiting lines for visas? When can we expect them to become more normal?
A. Right now we are in the middle of one of the three student visa seasons. We are giving it huge priority, and if you visit the Consulate, you will long queues of students. We have been giving them top priority, we have issued over 127,000 student visas in the past one year. It tells you how committed we are and we will continue to do so.
For business and H-1B visas, we are trying to get them to more manageable amount of time, and we are hoping by the end of June, we will have our nation-wide staffing to pre-pandemic levels. For Hyderabad, we are opening this new facility in this fantastic compound in the Financial District, which will allow us to offer expanded Visa services for this region.
Finally, how has it been getting acclimatised while settling down here in Hyderabad? How has been the food experience?
It has been a few months since I am here, some of my art is here, even my pet cat is here. So I am settling down. Hyderabad has been fantastic. It has exceptional book stores, art galleries and heritage walks in the Old City. But it is a city that slowly reveals itself, layer by layer.
I am a huge foodie. So far have had fantastic food experiences at people’s houses as well as restaurants. The best has been this food kitchen in Old City, run by girls we work with, SAFA’s Luqma Kitchen, who got trained so they can benefit from new opportunities. Dosti parathas, shami kebabs and this amazing lamb shorba – if I can learn to cook it, I would be very proud.
