US President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to India on Thursday pushed back on fears that New Delhi was drifting towards China, pledging to draw India closer to the US, open its markets to American goods and end Russian oil purchases, while telling senators that India and China had little in common and were unlikely to forge closer ties.
“While we might have our moments of hiccups right now, we are on the track of resolving that. Our relationship with the Indian government … is much warmer,” said Sergio Gor, a close Trump aide who heads the White House Presidential Personnel Office.
“Should I be confirmed, I will make it a top priority to ensure that they’re pulled in our direction, not away from us,” he added at his Senate confirmation hearing, sharing that he will deepen ties on defence and technology cooperation.
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“I will prioritise deepening defence and security cooperation with India. This includes expanding joint military exercises, advancing co-development and co-production of defence systems and concluding critical defence sales,” Gor said.
Gor was grilled on how he would prevent India from sliding towards Beijing amid Trump’s tariffs and tough trade rhetoric, which have strained ties with a key Indo-Pacific partner.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump at the White House in February. Photo: Reuters alt=Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump at the White House in February. Photo: Reuters>
“The price of retreat,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democratic ranking member of the chamber’s Foreign Relations Committee, referring to President Xi Jinping’s pictures with India’s Narendra Modi and Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Summit earlier this month.
“China has been working diligently to capitalise on this moment of America’s retreat, and pushing India into a closer relationship with China is a serious setback to us,” she added.
Gor argued that India and China remain divided by border disputes and India’s unease over Beijing’s “expansionism”, making any lasting alignment unlikely.
“India is very concerned … just five years ago, there were an open conflict,” he said, referring to the 2020 India-China border clash that killed at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.
“Frankly, they are concerned by Chinese expansionism, and Chinese expansionism is not just on the border of India, it’s all over the area. And so we share a lot in common,” Gor told the panel.
Departing from Trump’s usual confrontational approach, Gor backed India’s engagement with the Brics bloc.
Indians have been on “our side on various issues within” the bloc, he told Senator John Thune, the chamber’s majority leader.
“Brazil, China have pushed for years to move away from the US dollar. India has been the stopgap for that,” Gor said, adding that India was “much more willing and open to engage with us than with some of those other individuals that are in Brics”.
Trump has accused Brics, a group of 10 emerging Global South economies, of pursuing “anti-American policies” aimed at undermining the US dollar’s dominance as the world’s reserve currency through de-dollarisation efforts and local currency trade initiatives.
The America-first president has repeatedly threatened 100 per cent tariffs on Brics nations, with this administration repeatedly telling India to stop being a member.
Gor on Thursday also reaffirmed Trump’s commitment to the Quad alliance and attendance at its summit later this year. “The president is fully committed to continuing to meet with the Quad and strengthen it,” he said.
The Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is a strategic partnership among the US, India, Japan and Australia, aimed at promoting a free, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific region. Formed in 2007 and revitalised in 2017, it focuses on countering China’s growing influence in the region.
Leaning on personal diplomacy, Gor highlighted the “deep friendship” between Trump and Modi, saying: “When the president has been critical of India, he has gone out of his way to compliment Prime Minister Modi. They have an incredible relationship. I’ve been with him in the same room.”
He pointed to Trump’s invitation for India’s trade minister to visit Washington next week.
“The president has invited their commerce and their trade ministers to come visit us next week, and he’ll be meeting with Ambassador [US Trade Representative Jamieson] Greer here in Washington.
“Part of that will include a hopeful deal. We’re not that far apart right now on a deal. In fact, they’re negotiating down [to the] nitty gritty of a deal.”
Gor stressed that trade talks remain a key lever to pull India closer, particularly efforts to end its Russian oil imports and open its markets.
“We fully intend, in these trade talks that are ongoing right now, to open the markets to crude oil, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas. You’re talking about a population of 1.4 billion … countless possibilities to expand into those markets,” he said.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
