OPED By Haider Abbas
Almost simultaneously, two pieces of news came. India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who was recently in Moscow, called US tariffs “unjustified and unreasonable”. Yet, the lines with the US were not cut.
The other news is the appointment of Tashkent-born (1986), from Uzbekistan, Sergio Gor, previously Sergey Gorokhovsky, personal chief of US President Donald Trump, as the new US ambassador to India.
This development is definitely adverse news for New Delhi, as India-US relations are bitter after Trump announced a 50 percent tariff on Indian products. While a 25 per cent tariff has already come into effect, the levy of another 25 per cent – over energy imports from Russia – is supposed to begin from August 27.
Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, a multi-billionaire, who was most instrumental in the campaign for Donald Trump as US President, has fallen apart. He was to get his ally and associate Jared Issacman as administrator to NASA, until Sergio Gor spilled the beans.
He informed Trump, just before Senate confirmation, that Jared Isaacman, whom Trump had picked up in late 2024 to lead NASA on Musk’s recommendation, had donated money to Democrats in the recent past, according to The New York Times.
Trump dropped Isaacman. Musk is now at daggers drawn with Trump, and referred to Sergio Gor as a snake. Gor has also been accorded certain additional responsibilities as Special Envoy for South and Central Asian Affairs. Trump, on his social media Truth Social account, called him a “great friend, who has been at my side for many years. It is important that I have someone I can fully trust to deliver on my agenda.”
Ironically, Trump did not use the term US agenda but instead his agenda!
Is it now the beginning of a bumpy ride that India is about to face with the US? Gor’s appointment, who is an absolute novice, with no previous experience of diplomacy or any stint in a foreign office anywhere in the world, has to take up an office in supposedly one of the biggest markets in the world, which will obviously ruffle many a feather in New Delhi.
Is Gor set to make an uneasy tide for PM Narendra Modi, as his only forte is to be the right-hand man of Trump? It is also widely speculated that Modi and Trump have ego issues with each other.
Trump credits himself with shutting down the war between India and Pakistan (May 2025), which India denies in absolute terms.
Lately, India has started a new bonhomie with China, as affront to the US, and Modi is also to visit China soon, something for the first time in seven years. India and China had a 78-day stand-off at Doklam in 2017, and in 2020 had a conflict in Galwan, which had seen many soldiers die from each side. There have been long border disputes between the two nations for decades. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in New Delhi on August 18.
Why has Trump made such an inexperienced choice? Gor appears to be in India only to fulfill Trump’s agenda.
Is the agenda this time to be personally against Modi? Speculations are rife about the same or what else is to be on Trump’s agenda? Wasn’t it the same Howdi Modi who had once cried Abki Baar Trump Sarkar in 2020, but by 2024, Modi had supported the outgoing US President Joseph Biden.
What is to be the line of action of Gor? The Indian ruling dispensation right now is averse to the US political establishment, and there are likely to be roadblocks from the Indian side. How will he navigate in India’s scenario, if not with warnings, threats, brooding in arrogance, perhaps, is all yet to be seen?
The skeptics now have a clear view that the US is putting India into hot water. There is no doubt that India has had one of its worst time in foreign policy, as the last 25 years, have seen India very steadfastly by US, along with Israel side, vocally and eloquently, but in the last few years too, India has kept on buying Russian oil, at heavily subsidized rates, to the consternation of US.
Finally, the US has put its foot down to pressure India over Russian oil. Russia and Ukraine are at war. US and European nations are lined up in support of Ukraine. The US considers that India has put the Russian economy afloat, or else Russia would have been brought to its knees.
Trump’s move has arguably baffled everyone. Why was an inexperienced and not even an independent diplomat made to sit in such a pivotal position? Perhaps the answer lies in loyalty, as Sergio Gor, unlike other ambassadors who cannot talk to the President on a direct basis, will have direct lines with Trump, and therefore, Trump will be able to implement his agenda.
As Sergio Gor is expected to see India not as a partner but a foe, hobnobbing with Russia and China as well. If this turns out to be true, there are certainly hard days ahead for the pharmaceutical, IT, and agriculture industries. Elon Musk has already backed out of investments in India.
The US might also block investments as India is expected to gravitate towards the BRICS currency, as a quid pro quo, towards the de-dollarization programme of Russia and China.
If India is to go ahead to buy Russian advanced Su-57 fifth-generation stealth fighter jets and abandon the US F-35, the showdown will see a further wedge between US and Indian relations.
Will Sergio Gor, then, douse the situation or inflame it more? It is yet to unfold!
- OPED By Haider Abbas
- The writer is a former UP State Information Commissioner.
- VIEWS PERSONAL OF THE AUTHOR
