Chennai: U.S. Ambassador Kenneth I. Juster on Tuesday commemorated the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Consulate General building at Chennai, hailing the event as a warm reiteration of the close relationship between the people in the region and the USA.
"As we mark five decades of operating the Consulate and American Center at this location in Gemini Circle, we celebrate not only our iconic building, but the people - students, dignitaries, American Center patrons, exchange participants, business people, scholars, and staff - who have brought special meaning and great substance to the relationship of the United States of America with this city and the larger South India region", Ambassador Juster said at the event held on the eve of the 380th founding of Madras.
He was joined in the event by TN Minister for Tamil language and culture K Pandiarajan, US Consul General Robert Burgess and historian V Sriram, besides several distinguished guests and patrons of the American Center.
The US consulate building at Gemini Circle was inaugurated on January 3, 1969 by then-US Ambassador Chester Bowles, along with Madras Governor Sardar Ujjal Singh and state Industries and Educational Minister V.R. Nedunchezhian. Since then, the Consulate has rapidly expanded its services to facilitate greater trade, travel, and educational exchanges between the citizens of the United States and South India.
Official U.S. presence in Chennai stretches back to 1794 when President George Washington appointed U.S. businessman William Abbott as the first Consular Agent to Madras.
