By Patricia Zengerle and David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to India said on Thursday that Washington and New Delhi are “not that far apart” on tariffs at a hearing in which he and Trump’s fellow Republicans described warm bilateral ties despite recent tensions.
In a highly unusual move, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a surprise appearance at the hearing to introduce Sergio Gor, the nominee. India is “one of the top relationships the United States has in the world today in terms of the future of what the world’s going to look like,” Rubio said.
Successive U.S. administrations have courted India as a potential counterweight to an increasingly powerful China, but Trump’s trade war has severely tested the relationship.
Talks on lower tariff rates collapsed after India, the world’s fifth-largest economy, resisted opening its vast agricultural and dairy sectors. Bilateral trade is worth more than $190 billion each year.
Trump first imposed additional tariffs of 25% on imports from India, then said they would double to 50% from August 27 as punishment for New Delhi’s increased purchases of Russian oil, as Washington works to end the war in Ukraine.
“We’re not that far apart on a deal on these tariffs,” Gor, a close Trump aide who is director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“I do think it will get resolved in the next few weeks,” Gor said.
RESET IN RELATIONS
The hearing underscored a recent shift in tone the Trump administration’s dealings with New Delhi.
Senate aides said they could not remember another recent hearing in which the secretary of state came to introduce an ambassadorial nominee.
The hearing also happened more quickly than usual. Trump announced on August 22 that Gor was his choice for the post in New Delhi and to serve as a special envoy for South and Central Asian Affairs.
Republican senators said it would benefit India to have an ambassador who is so close to Trump. “There are few relationships that are as critical for our national security or for our economics,” said Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, who was ambassador to Japan during Trump’s first term.
Trump said on Tuesday his administration is continuing negotiations to address trade barriers with India and that he would talk to Modi, in a sign of a reset after weeks of diplomatic friction.
Asked if he would commit to pushing to ensure that a summit meeting of the Quad, which groups India with Australia, Japan and the United States, would take place as scheduled later this year, Gor said: “Without committing to exact dates … the president is fully committed to continue to meet with the Quad and strengthening it.”
India has been expected to host a November Quad summit, with a more explicit focus on security regarding China than previously, but a person familiar with the matter told Reuters this month that Trump has yet to schedule a trip there.
“While we might have our moment of hiccups right now, we are on the track of resolving that,” Gor said.
“Our relationship with the Indian government, with the people of India, extends many more decades, and it’s a much warmer relationship than they have with the Chinese.”
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Franklin Paul, Nia Williams, Don Durfee and Richard Chang)
