New US ambassador choice to Delhi brackets India with Pakistan: Foreign policy experts

US President Donald Trump’s choice of Sergio Gor as the next Ambassador to India has sparked diplomatic unease in New Delhi, not just for who he is, but what he’s being asked to do.

Gor’s appointment, announced Friday on Trump’s Truth Social platform, comes with an additional, and controversial, title: Special Envoy for South and Central Asian Affairs. This dual role, say Indian strategic experts, revives long-standing concerns over Washington’s tendency to "hyphenate" India with its neighbours, particularly Pakistan.

“This is a version of Richard Holbrooke’s mandate that we had rejected,” former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal posted on X. He warned that Gor’s expanded brief means he will now oversee US relations across the region, including with Pakistan, effectively positioning him to coordinate with other American ambassadors on South Asia policy—India included.

“This blurs the Indo-Pacific focus of US-India ties,” Sibal added, calling the double role “problematic” and “not normal” for a country like India, which hosts one of America’s largest overseas embassies.

Senior political analyst Brahma Chellaney echoed the alarm, saying the move signals a downgrade in how Washington views its ties with New Delhi. “By reducing India from a global partner to a South Asian player, America weakens its own hand,” he wrote, noting the delay in naming an ambassador amid frayed ties and rising trade tensions.

The stakes are high. Gor will arrive in India just as the US plans to double tariffs on Indian goods next week, a flashpoint in already strained bilateral ties.

Gor, a close Trump ally and former publisher of the ex-president’s best-selling books, is known more for his political organising than diplomatic credentials. Trump credited him with staffing thousands of positions in his administration and said he was “at my side for many years.”