Sergio Gor, US envoy-designate to India, says trade deal imminent, strategic ties intact

TOI correspondent from Washington: US ambassador-designate to India Sergio Gor on Thursday said Washington and New Delhi are “not that far apart” on tariff issues and indicated an agreement between the two sides is imminent. The upbeat assessment came even as he, along with top officials and lawmakers, talked up long-term strategic ties between the two countries that have been rocked by differences over trade matters. At a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Gor disclosed that President Trump has invited India’s commerce and trade ministers to visit US and they will be meeting with USTR Jamieson Greer in Washington next week. “Part of that will include hopefully a deal. We are not that far apart right now… In fact, they’re negotiating the nitty gritty of a deal,” Gor said. At a broader level, Gor and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who unusually dropped by at the hearing to introduce ambassadorial nominees, tamped down on talk of a rupture in ties because of the protracted tariff dispute, asserting that “India is among America’s TOP relationships for shaping the world’s future.” “The story of the 21st century will be written in the Indo-Pacific. It’s so important that we have changed the name of the combatant command (from Asia-Pacific)…India is at the core of that,” Rubio said in his remarks, challenging reports, based on draft of the upcoming National Defense Strategy, that the Trump administration is dialing down commitments in the region in favor of a more isolationist posture. Gor also said President Trump remained committed to the Quad partnership with India, Japan, and Australia, without offering a firm date committment that the US President would visit the next Quad meeting, scheduled to be held in India later this year.He also spoke of the “deep friendship” Trump has with PM Modi saying it was “something unique.”“In fact, if you have noticed, when he has gone after other nations, he tends to go after their leaders for putting us in that position, and for the United States imposing those tariffs. 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,” he said. PM Modi was conspicuously cool about Trump’s recent remarks on their personal friendship, emphasizing friendship between the two countries after the US President slapped punitive tariff amounting to sanctions against India for buying Russian oil. In fact, asked by Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen why India had copped tariff penalty and China had escaped it despite buying more Russian oil, Gor proffered the following explanation: “We hold our friends to different standards. Frankly, we expect more from India than we do sometimes from other nations.”There was no indication at any point during the hearing that Washington would ease pressure on New Delhi on the Russian oil issue despite all the upbeat sentiments about enhancing strategic ties. In fact, SFRC Chair Jim Risch, a Republican from Idaho, with a population less than that of a middling Indian city, told Gor that he must impress on India that the US “will not tolerate support for Putin’s war machine.”Still, as several lawmakers expressed concern over the recent SCO summit where they perceived the leaders of Russia, China, and India getting close, Gor repeatedly asserted that the US and India had a lot more in common than they had with Russia or China. “If confirmed, I will ensure they (India) are pulled in our direction, not away from us,” he told lawmakers, some of whom spoke of his closeness to Trump and his direct access to the President.