Trump hints at cutting tariffs on India as loyalist Sergio Gor sworn in as ambassador

U.S. President Donald Trump faces a caller trial of his governmental diplomacy with India arsenic longtime loyalist Sergio Gor takes up his station arsenic ambassador successful New Delhi, amid hostility implicit commercialized and Russian lipid imports, which person weighed connected the 2 countries' strategical ties.

At Gor's swearing-in ceremonial connected Monday, Trump said Washington whitethorn soon little tariffs connected Indian goods, suggesting some sides are moving person to a commercialized deal.

"The tariffs connected India are truly precocious due to the fact that of the Russian lipid [imports], but they person present substantially reduced Russian lipid [imports], truthful we volition beryllium bringing the tariffs down," Trump said.

However, information from marketplace probe steadfast Kpler showed that India's imports of Russian crude were mostly unchanged in October astatine 1.59 cardinal barrels per time (mbd) from September.

"So far, 1.73 mbd of October Russian exports person been signaled to India, with different 302 kbd (thousand barrels per day) not yet showing a last destination (a information of which could besides extremity up successful India)," the vessel tracker said, adding "it's inactive excessively aboriginal to gully a wide representation for November".

Trump said Gor's priorities would see promoting concern successful cardinal U.S. Industries, expanding American vigor exports and expanding information cooperation.

"I americium looking astatine Sergio to fortify 1 of astir important relationships and that is the strategical concern with the Republic of India," Trump said.

Gor, whose information arsenic U.S. ambassador to India was confirmed by the Senate connected Oct. 7, arrived successful New Delhi a fewer days aboriginal and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sermon defense, commercialized and technology. "We besides discussed the value of captious minerals to some of our nations," Gor said successful a statement.

Gor represents the White House's propulsion for faster, much nonstop connection with New Delhi, bypassing the accustomed diplomatic bureaucracy, said Alexandra Hermann of Oxford Economics.

"[This] suggests a tendency to scope a commercialized woody sooner alternatively than later," Hermann said.

"A 'political' ambassador alternatively than a 'traditional' diplomat whitethorn so velocity things up, but it besides raises the hazard that if sentiment successful either state sours, they are little insulated and ties tin go adjacent much volatile," she added.

Steep tariffs, a $100,000 fee for H1B visas, and Trump's repeated claims of brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan are among issues that person led to the deterioration of strategical ties betwixt New Delhi and Washington successful caller months, according to experts.

"It can't beryllium that you are the astir tariffed state successful the world, much than adjacent China, and past speech astir subject relationship and associated maneuvers,"  former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said astatine a Nov. 6 event organized by the Chicago Council connected Global Affairs.

The past clip Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger tilted the U.S. towards Pakistan during the 1971 India-Pakistan war, it pushed India person to the Soviet Union for the adjacent 25 years, warned Rajan, present a prof of Finance astatine the University of Chicago Booth.

Shortly aft the U.S. imposed 50% tariffs connected Indian exports successful August, Modi attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit successful Tianjin, wherever a viral clip showed him laughing with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The New York Times described the infinitesimal arsenic a "smiling manifestation of a troika that Moscow had precocious said it hoped to revive," noting the optics of closeness betwixt Modi and Putin, who adjacent shared a thrust to a gathering connected the sidelines.

India's outreach to Russia has continued. This week, a delegation of 20 Indian companies participated successful this year's Moscow International Tool Expo, the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), a assemblage nether India's Ministry of Commerce & Industry, said successful a connection Monday.

"Our engineering exports to Russia is increasing rapidly and expected to scope $1.75 cardinal this year," FIEO President S C Ralhan said successful the statement, adding that the information successful the accumulation volition "deepen commercialized ties" and assistance successful boosting bilateral commercialized betwixt the 2 nations.

But experts accidental that Russia remains a constricted spouse compared with the U.S.

India exported $4.88 cardinal to Russia and imported $63.84 cardinal successful fiscal 2025, according to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation. By contrast, the U.S. accounted for 18% of India's exports, compared with lone 1% for Russia, said Hermann of Oxford Economics.