US Ambassador Gor set to meet top officials in India
He will be on a six-day visit to India, Newly appointed US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor will be on a six-day visit to India, the US State Department said on Thursday. Gor will be accompanied by Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources Michael J Rigas.
The duo will be travelling from October 9 to October 14.
Gor and Rigas will meet Indian government counterparts to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues.
“The United States will continue to work with India to strengthen our strategic partnership and promote a safer, stronger and more prosperous Indo-Pacific region,” said the US State Department.
The US Embassy in New Delhi said this was just a short visit. The presentation of his credentials and move to India would occur at a later date that has not yet been determined.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump spoke to each other and probably ironed out a few wrinkles on the stalled trade deal.
Gor, a trusted aide of Trump, was confirmed by the US Senate as Ambassador to India on Tuesday. Gor will fill the vacancy created in New Delhi since January this year when US Ambassador Eric Garcetti was recalled after Trump took over power in Washington DC.
Gor will not just be the US Ambassador to India, he will also be the ‘Special Envoy for South and Central Asia’, a first such clubbing of the US Ambassador’s post in India. It means a greatly expanded mandate and authority of the US in the region, much beyond the usual bilateral relations.
Gor, who has worked on Trump’s presidential campaigns, is an ardent supporter of ‘America First’ — a political slogan of Trump to prioritise jobs and industry in his country. In his present position of Director of Presidential Personnel, Gor hired nearly 4,000 people as part of the ‘America first’ move across every Department of US Federal Government.
Last month, appearing before the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee in Washington DC, Gor had laid out his ambitions on the US-India partnership, including cooperation in defence, technology, AI, semi-conductors, pharmaceutical and critical minerals. Gor’s targets include making US the top energy supplier to India – crude oil and natural gas.
The US Senate on Tuesday voted 51-47 in favour of okaying 107 Trump appointments and that included Gor’s to India. Gor’s appointment as Ambassador to India was done on August 23 but it needed to be ratified by the Foreign Relations Committee led by James Risch from Trump’s own party, the Republicans, followed by the vote in the Senate.
India