President Donald Trump has nominated Sergio Gor, one of his closest aides, to be the next US ambassador to India, at a time of worsening relations marked by a planned doubling of US tariffs on Indian imports.
Gor, 38, currently heads the White House Presidential Personnel Office and would also serve as a special envoy for South and Central Asian affairs.
Trump said on Friday that Gor would remain in his current role until confirmed by the Senate.
"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, which supported our Movement," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He praised Gor's work in staffing his second term and added: "For the most populous Region in the World, it is important that I have someone I can fully trust to deliver on my Agenda and help us, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."
Tense relationship
The nomination places a close political aide with limited foreign policy experience in one of Washington's most sensitive diplomatic postings.
India, the world's fifth-largest economy, has been at the centre of Trump's trade war.
Bilateral trade exceeds $190 billion annually, but talks on reducing tariffs collapsed after New Delhi resisted opening its agricultural and dairy markets.
Trump first imposed additional tariffs of 25 percent on Indian imports and announced they would double to 50 percent starting August 27, citing India's sharply increased purchases of Russian oil.
"India is profiting from this war," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday, calling New Delhi's energy strategy "unacceptable" to Washington.
US-India ties have frayed further as both sides spar over energy, agriculture and defence cooperation, despite long-standing US strategic efforts to counterbalance China's influence in Asia.
Gor would take up the post with the added mandate of acting as Trump's envoy to South and Central Asia, a region where Washington faces complex challenges from Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean.
Trump called Gor "an incredible Ambassador," saying he trusted him to push through his agenda in a region key to US strategic and economic goals.
