US ambassador to India resigns

Say goodbye, Tim. US Ambassador-Designate to India Timothy J. Roemer leaves the Indian External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi on July 17, 2009. (MANAN VATSYAYANA – AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer is resigning his post, a US embassy press release said Thursday.
Ambassador Roemer is expected to leave India in June.

Ambassador Roemer’s departure is for personal, professional, and family considerations, according to the official statement.

“When I accepted this job two years ago, I told President Obama that I would serve for two years but that family considerations would be front and center after that,” the press release quoted Roemer as saying. Roemer also said that he has two sons who will be leaving for college in the next 14 months and he would like his parents and in-laws to be able to spend more time with his children. He also stated that he had accomplished all of the strategic objectives set forth two years ago, the statement said.

Roemer cited several initiatives that he believes have strengthened Indo-US relations, including President Obama's pledge of support for a permanent UN Security Council seat for India, the removal of nine Indian companies from the so-called "entities list" of firms denied access to sensitive US technologies, and a Counterterrorism Cooperation Initiative that has seen the two countries working jointly on investigations and improving information sharing.

Roemer's Indian interlocutors may not hold all of those achievements in as high regard, as it was during this period of new cooperation that the US hid knowledge of Pakistani double agent David Headley — a key planner of the September 2008 attacks on Mumbai. And the ambassador is leaving just before a new, pivotal stage in US-India dialogue — as the impending resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan throws the three-way relationship among India, Pakistan and the US into flux.