The White House appeared poised to elevate Ashton Carter (60), former Deputy Secretary of Defence, to the role occupied by his erstwhile boss, Chuck Hagel, after several other contenders took themselves out of the running for the post of Secretary of Defence.
Mr. Carter, who has visited India on numerous occasions as the Obama administration’s “point man on the pivot-to-Asia strategy,” made it his personal mission to enhance defence ties with New Delhi and campaigned to relax restrictions on the transfer of sensitive technology, which had led to some curtailment of weapons sales.
Among those who withdrew from the race are Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, and Michèle Flournoy, former Under Secretary of Defence, and Jeh Johnson, the current Secretary of Homeland Security.
Although the White House has not yet made any formal announcement about its intent to nominate Mr. Carter, the man who had batted on the front foot for the India-U.S. Defence Trade and Technology Initiative is said to be the likely pick according to unnamed officials quoted by several media outlets here.
Numerous reports suggested that Mr. Carter would likely be confirmed by the Senate for the top job because even though he was passed over for the role in early 2013 and continued working there for a year at the behest of the White House, he was effectively the Chief Operating Officer who gained deep experience in the intricacies of the Pentagon.
Several Senators, including James Inhofe of Oklahoma (ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee), and John McCain, the likely next Chair of the Committee, said they “foresaw no opposition” to Mr. Carter’s nomination and Senator McCain had earlier praised Mr. Carter’s “insatiable intellectual curiosity.”