The surprise announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump that he would send his close aide, 38-year-old Sergio Gor, as Ambassador to India has led to some relief for those hoping the nomination will pause the deterioration in India-U.S. ties over trade and other issues.
However, Mr. Trump’s additional charge to Mr. Gor, as Special Envoy on South and Central Asian Affairs, has raised a red flag in New Delhi, as experts said this may indicate a continued U.S. desire to mediate between India and Pakistan.
The Ministry of External Affairs did not comment on Mr. Gor’s nomination, as the official paperwork for an “agreement” will only follow once he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Unlike his predecessor Eric Garcetti, who only took charge in New Delhi two years into the Biden administration due to Congressional delays, Mr. Gor’s confirmation process is expected to be smoother, and completed within a couple of months, if not the stipulated 90 days.
Direct communication with Trump
“The fact that there is a nominee, and that it is someone like Sergio Gor is positive news,” said Mukesh Aghi, President and CEO of the U.S. India Strategic Partnership Forum that represents industry interests in both countries. It is important for a U.S. Ambassador to be able to speak directly to the U.S. President, rather than through the U.S. State department, which can delay communication, he said.
“I would also think that the timing of the announcement gives some hope that there is some negotiation possible to defer the secondary sanctions until Mr. Gor is in place,” Mr. Aghi told The Hindu, referring to the August 27 deadline for an additional 25% penalty tariff to be imposed on India for buying Russian oil, in addition to the 25% reciprocal tariffs already in place.
However, former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao, who was also India’s Ambassador to the U.S. between 2011 and 2013, pointed out that Mr. Gor has no diplomatic or regional experience. “On the basis of available information, he is a long-time Trump aide, with no apparent background in India or South Asia. His main qualification appears to be loyalty to Trump,” she said.
U.S.-based author Meenakshi Ahamed said that the lack of experience was in stark contrast to previous Ambassadors sent by Democrat and Republican Presidents alike, including renowned academics like John Kenneth Galbraith and Daniel Patrick Moynihan or the previous Ambassador Eric Garcetti, who was a Rhodes scholar and former Mayor of Los Angeles. “Mr. Gor has a direct line to a President who relies on his inner circle and has changed his mind frequently on issues. That may make him India’s best hope as Ambassador at this time,” she said.
Relinking India to Pakistan
Notwithstanding his proximity, the larger concern in New Delhi over Mr. Gor’s nomination is over his appointment as Special Envoy to the region. Apart from spiralling tensions over the U.S. tariffs and the Trump administration’s pejorative statements, India and the U.S. have been at odds over Mr. Trump’s claim that he had mediated the ceasefire after the four-day conflict between India and Pakistan in May, and his close engagement with Pakistan Field Marshal General Asim Munir after that.
According to Ms. Rao, appointing a special envoy to the region would “risk re-linking India to U.S. policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan — something India has resisted for decades”. Some likened the move to former U.S. President Barack Obama’s plan to send Richard Holbrook as his Special Envoy for the entire region in January 2009. The plan was derailed after then-External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told then-U.S. Ambassador David Mulford that the move “smacked of interference and would be unacceptable [to India]”, according to a cable published by Wikileaks. As a result, Mr. Holbrook was only named the Af-Pak envoy.
Former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said that giving Mr. Gor a similar post would be “problematic” as it would blur the lines on ties between India and its neighbours, as well as shift the focus from the U.S.-India Indo-Pacific policy.
“The responsibility of a U.S. ambassador to a huge country like India, with many U.S. Consulates and a massive amount of bilateral work, is such that this kind of ‘concurrent accreditation’ is not normal,” he said on social media.
From Trump’s inner circle
In his announcement on social media, Mr. Trump said that he would nominate Mr. Gor, who has worked on both his presidential campaigns and now runs the White House Personnel division that decides on hires for key administration posts, and who was a “great friend” to him. “For the most populous Region in the World, it is important that I have someone I can fully trust to deliver on my Agenda and help us, Make America Great Again (MAGA),” he posted.
Mr. Gor is a naturalised American citizen, who was born in Tashkent under the Soviet Union in 1986 as Sergey Gorokhovsky, and whose parents moved to Malta and then to the U.S. in the 1990s. He has always been politically conservative, and was president of the right-wing Young America’s Foundation at George Washington University, giving a speech in 2008 that referred to his liberal college-mates as “hippies and lunatic pinheads”.
After working on Republican Senator Rand Paul’s team, Mr. Gor moved in 2020 to become chief of staff on the Trump Victory Finance Committee. After Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election, Mr. Gor co-founded a publishing company with Donald Trump Jr. called Winning Team Publishing and continued to raise funds for the next Trump campaign in 2024.
Published – August 23, 2025 09:54 pm IST
