Washington DC : Sergio Gor, US President Donald Trump's nominee for Ambassador to India, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that the US President is fully committed towards meeting with the QUAD and highlighted the importance attached to the grouping.
He made the remarks during the confirmation hearing. Gor said, "The President is fully committed to continuing to meet with the Quad and strengthening it." When asked what actions he would take to strengthen the India-US cooperation on QUAD, Gor said, "The QUAD is vitally important. After Secretary Rubio was sworn in and clapped in at the State Department, one hour after, his first meeting was with the Foreign Ministers of QUAD. The President is committed to continual engagement with the Quad. There have already been talks about a trip for the next Quad meeting."
The QUAD is a diplomatic partnership between India, US, Japan and Australia towards a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific. The positive remarks come shortly after the hiccups arose over the issue of tariffs and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's meeting in Tianjin that saw the coming together of the leaders of India, Russia and China to which Trump had said, "Looks like we've lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Commenting on the joint military exercise between India and the US, Gor told the senate, "On your earlier point of joint troop exercises, those continue to occur and we would fully encourage that to grow. Just last week we had 500 Indian troops train with our troops in Alaska, that's a great thing. So inspite of this little hiccup we've had over tariffs, our relationship is much stronger, it's build on many more decades and I will do everything in my power should I be confirmed to enhance that. "
Gor, while answering a question on India's purchase of Russian oil, said, "President Trump has made it crystal clear that they (India) must stop buying Russian oil... The president has only imposed a 25 % tariff, and he's fully encouraging also European partners and others around the world to stop that. Our tariffs work if our partners around the world are on the same page. If we're unilaterally putting tariffs on someone, but they're able to the same oil and resell the same oil through China, through India, through Brazil, that's a problem. And so we fully intend on fixing that."
Calling India a "vital counterweight" to China in the Indo-Pacific, Gor underlined the importance of the relationship and called India a "stopgap" on various issues within the BRICS grouping, particularly that of de-dollarisation.
He said, "India is a vital counterweight to communist China in the Indo-Pacific. So our relationship is very important. I'm concerned that India is a member of the BRICS organisation alongside some of our biggest adversaries. So how are you going to deal with that? Senator, I share those concerns with you. um With that said, Indians have been on our side on various issues within BRICS, including several individuals in BRICS, Brazil, China, have pushed for years to move away from the US dollar, India has been the stopgap for that. India is much more willing and open to engage with us than with some of those other individuals that are in BRICS."
BRICS leaders had recently concluded a virtual Summit, where Brazil's President Lula had highlighted that the summit saw discussions on the need to advance towards a more "just, balanced, and inclusive international order, one capable of responding more effectively to the demands of the Global South". The BRICS members had reaffirmed their commitment towards preserving and strengthening multilateralism and reforming international institutions, he noted in his post.