President Donald Trump on Friday picked close aide Sergio Gor as the US ambassador to India and special envoy for South and Central Asian affairs in a clear re-hyphenation of India and Pakistan that New Delhi has always opposed.
Gor, a MAGA leader once described as a “snake” by Trump’s now estranged ally Elon Musk, has to wait for Senate confirmation of his appointment.
While some in the two countries’ policy circles saw the President’s selection of a close associate as indication of the importance he attaches to India, others saw in Gor an attempt by Trump to push his agenda. There was broad consensus across the continents, however, that the India-Pakistan hyphenation was back.
The announcement comes amid strains in the India-US relationship.
Born Sergey Gorokhovsky in Tashkent in the then Soviet Union in 1986, Gor is currently director of the Presidential Personnel Office.
In a Truth Social post, Trump described the appointment as a promotion for Gor.
“Sergio is a great friend, who has been at my side for many years. He worked on my Historic Presidential Campaigns, published my Best Selling Books, and ran one of the biggest Super PACs (political action committees), which supported our movement,” he wrote.
“Sergio’s role as Director of Presidential Personnel has been essential to delivering on the unprecedented Mandate that we received from the American People. For the most populous Region in the World, it is important that I have someone I can fully trust and deliver on my Agenda and help us, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Sergio will make an incredible Ambassador….”
India did not comment on Gor’s selection. Asked about it at the ET World Leaders Forum, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar said: “I am a foreign minister. I don’t comment on ambassadorial appointments of other countries.”
He admitted that relations with the US were a “little bit complicated”.
Former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said: “Trump has openly said Gor will push his agenda, and there is no mention — as far as I am aware — of strengthening US-India ties.
“On top of that, Gor is also nominated as special envoy for South and Central Asia, which risks re-linking India to US policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan — something India has resisted for decades.”
Another former foreign secretary, Kanwal Sibal, noted that this was the first time a US ambassador to India had been chosen also for the post of special envoy for South and Central Asian affairs.
“This means he will have a much wider mandate covering the jurisdiction of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in the State Dept,” Sibal posted on X.
“Ipso facto he will be supervising India’s relationship within this region. With Pakistan and our other neighbours. This means he will be consulting and coordinating with other US ambassadors in the region to develop a more integrated approach. This is a new form of ‘hyphenating’ India and Pakistan again, amongst other things.
“This Special Envoy mandate also blurs the focus on the Indo-Pacific dimension of US-India ties. The intention behind this double nomination is problematic. A version of Holbrook(e)’s mandate as Special Envoy for India and Pakistan which we rejected.”
Sibal said: “This time the same approach is being pursued by giving the Ambassador himself a double role to which we can’t object. The responsibility of a US ambassador to a huge country like India with many US Consulates and massive amount of bilateral work (the US embassy in India is amongst its biggest in the world) is such that this kind of ‘concurrent accreditation’ is not normal. Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination may bring some clarity about the meaning of his mandate.”
India had under the UPA government successfully resisted a bid by the Barack Obama administration to appoint Richard Holbrooke as special envoy for the India-Pakistan-Afghanistan region.
A secret cable sent by the then US ambassador in India, David Mulford, to Washington on January 7, 2009, said that then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee “was deeply concerned about any move toward an envoy with a broad regional mandate that could be interpreted to include Kashmir….”
“A special envoy smacks of interference and would be unacceptable, he said. Keen for the US-India relationship not to be viewed primarily through the lens of regional crises, Mukherjee said India was content that Vice President-elect Biden not extend his current trip beyond Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, but that India looked forward one day to welcoming a visit that could showcase the breadth of the bilateral relationship,” Mulford wrote.
South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman posted: “If Gor is confirmed as ambassador to India and also serves in the special envoy role, then it would appear that India-Pakistan hyphenation is back.”
He added: “Another view: The US is signaling the importance of ties w/India by having the special envoyfor two key regions be posted in Delhi.”
US Presidents have been known to appoint close political associates to ambassadorial posts. Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, too, selected someone closely associated with his presidential campaign to head Roosevelt House in New Delhi, Eric Garcetti.