Amid the US’s opposition to India buying Russian oil, Sergio Gor, US President Donald Trump’s nominee for the next US Ambassador to India, has signalled that America wants India to open its markets to the US crude and petroleum products.

Gor’s remarks come amid trade tensions between India and the US over Trump’s imposition of 50% tariffs on Indian imports. Half of these duties were imposed citing India’s oil trade with Russia. Gor also said the two countries were headed towards resolving some issues.

“Possibilities are endless…we fully intend in these trade talks that are ongoing, to open (Indian) markets to our crude oil, petroleum products, and LNG,” Gor said, highlighting India’s middle class population. “We have countless possibilities to expand into those markets and we fully intend to do that,” Gor concluded.

Even as he hinted at a turnaround in ties between India and Russia, Sergio Gor reiterated that Donald Trump wants India to end its oil trade with Russia. “President Trump has made it crystal clear that India must stop buying Russian oil…,” Gor said.

‘Deep friendship with PM Modi’

Sergio Gor struck an optimistic note on India-US ties, highlighting a “deep friendship” between Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also pointed out Trump’s compliments for PM Modi, despite being critical of India over trade.

“If you’ve noticed, when he goes after other nations, he tends to go after their leaders for putting us in that position and for the US imposing those tariffs. When the President has been critical of India, he goes out of his way to compliment Modi,” Gor said.

His comments followed a recent positive exchange between Trump and PM Modi, with the US President saying he would “always be friends” with Modi and the Prime Minister echoing the sentiment by appreciating Trump’s “positive assessment” of ties.

‘Will ensure India pulled away from China’

Sergio Gor also signalled that the US was willing to cement ties with India in a way that it is pulled away from China. He asserted that the American-Indian ties are much warmer than the relationship New and Delhi and Beijing share.

“Our relationship with the Indian government and the Indian people extends many more decades, and it’s a much warmer relationship than they have with the Chinese…,” he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday (local time). His remarks came in response to a question on Chinese expansionism, which Gor said was “not just on the border with India, it’s all over the area…”.

“We will make it a top priority that India is pulled into our side and away from them…,” Sergio Gor further added.

He also credited India for being the stopgap as several BRICS countries pushed for years to move away from the US Dollar. “India is much more willing and open to engage with us than with those other nations in BRICS,” Gor added.