Washington, Dec 22, (IANS) The appointment of Sergio Gor as the next US Ambassador to India could significantly strengthen bilateral ties due to his exceptional access to President Donald Trump, Atul Keshap, said, President of the US-India Business Council (USIBC).
Keshap described the ambassador as “the quarterback of the entire US government team” in India, responsible for coordinating both in-country operations and interagency efforts in Washington. “It’s a very critical role. It’s a very influential role,” he said.
He said Gor’s direct access to the US president set him apart from past envoys. “Ambassador Gore is arguably the ambassador to India who far and away has the most direct and priority access to the president of the United States in the entire history of the job,” Keshap told IANS.
“If you have an ambassador who can pick up the phone and get the president literally in that moment, you have a very, very powerful ambassador in Delhi,” he added.
Such access, Keshap said, could help advance decisions across strategic, economic and technological areas, including supply chains and Quad cooperation. “A powerful ambassador like that is a very rare and precious thing,” he said.
While emphasising that an ambassador’s primary responsibility was to advance US interests, Keshap said the role also involved building a mutually beneficial relationship with the host country. “The two largest democracies on Earth ought to be the best possible friends on Earth,” he said.
He said effective diplomacy required listening carefully to Indian perspectives and communicating them clearly in Washington.
“If you have an ambassador as potent as Ambassador Gore in Delhi, listening and hearing what the Indian side has to say… I think you have a very, very strong possibility for good ways forward,” he said.
Reflecting on the broader relationship, Keshap said recent years had included frank conversations. “When countries are honest with each other, that is the foundational basis of true friendship,” he said.
The US-India relationship has expanded across defence, technology, energy, space and supply chain cooperation.
India’s growing strategic and economic weight has made the US ambassadorship in New Delhi one of Washington’s most consequential diplomatic postings.
–IANS
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