Very Special To Touchdown In India With Secretary Blinken: Vedant Patel

NEW DELHI (ANI) – Born in Ahmedabad, Vedant Patel moved to the US when he was very young and created history last September by becoming the first Indian American to hold the daily State Department press briefing. He has been articulating the US viewpoint on some complex international issues and said he is “just really thrilled” to be at the State Department working for Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Patel recalled the “very special feeling” he had as he touched down in Delhi with Secretary Blinken ahead of the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting on March 2.

“I think that is one of the special things about the United States is that the opportunities that it has for people, for immigrants, for people of different backgrounds, the opportunity to do things like speak on behalf of the Administration, speak on behalf of the State Department. Being born in India, it was certainly a very special feeling to touchdown in Delhi with the Secretary of State, coming off that plane that says the United States of America back to the country that I was born in, and getting to come back as an American diplomat with the Secretary. It’s a very special feeling,” Patel said.

Talking about his journey, Patel said he has earlier worked for US President Joe Biden in the White House as well as on his campaign.

“I moved to Washington DC in late 2016 after I had been working for a member of Congress at the time and continued working in the government and political field and spent some time working for another member of Congress. And then I joined President Biden’s election campaign in the 2020 cycle very early on, and then had the opportunity to join the administration at the White House and spent about the first year-and-a-half of the Biden administration at the White House and then had the opportunity to join the State Department as well,” he added.

Earlier he had worked as Communications Director to Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Communications Director to Congressman Mike Honda. Patel is a graduate of the University of California, Riverside, and received an MBA from the University of Florida. He is originally from San Jose, CA