U.S. President Donald Trump faces a fresh test of his political diplomacy with India as longtime loyalist Sergio Gor takes up his post as ambassador in New Delhi, amid tension over trade and Russian oil imports, which have weighed on the two countries’ strategic ties.

At Gor’s swearing-in ceremony on Monday, Trump said Washington may soon lower tariffs on Indian goods, suggesting both sides are moving closer to a trade deal.

“The tariffs on India are really high because of the Russian oil [imports], but they have now substantially reduced Russian oil [imports], so we will be bringing the tariffs down,” Trump said.

However, data from market research firm Kpler showed that India’s imports of Russian crude were largely unchanged in October at 1.59 million barrels per day (mbd) from September.

“So far, 1.73 mbd of October Russian exports have been signaled to India, with another 302 kbd (thousand barrels per day) not yet showing a final destination (a portion of which could also end up in India),” the tank tracker said, adding “it’s still too early to draw a clear picture for November”.

Trump said Gor’s priorities would include promoting investment in key U.S. Industries, increasing American energy exports and expanding security cooperation.

“I am looking at Sergio to strengthen one of most important relationships and that is the strategic partnership with the Republic of India,” Trump said.

Gor, whose nomination as U.S. ambassador to India was confirmed by the Senate on Oct. 7, arrived in New Delhi a few days later and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss defense, trade and technology. “We also discussed the importance of critical minerals to both of our nations,” Gor said in a statement.

Gor represents the White House’s push for faster, more direct communication with New Delhi, bypassing the usual diplomatic bureaucracy, said Alexandra Hermann of Oxford Economics.

“[This] suggests a desire to reach a trade deal sooner rather than later,” Hermann said.

“A ‘political’ ambassador rather than a ‘traditional’ diplomat may indeed speed things up, but it also raises the risk that if opinion in either country sours, they are less insulated and ties can become even more volatile,” she added.

Steep tariffs, a $100,000 fee for H1B visas, and Trump’s repeated claims of brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan are among issues that have led to the deterioration of strategic ties between New Delhi and Washington in recent months, according to experts.

“It can’t be that you are the most tariffed country in the world, more than even China, and then talk about military friendship and joint maneuvers,”  former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said at a Nov. 6 event organized by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

The last time Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger tilted the U.S. towards Pakistan during the 1971 India-Pakistan war, it pushed India closer to the Soviet Union for the next 25 years, warned Rajan, now a professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth.

Shortly after the U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on Indian exports in August, Modi attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, where a viral clip showed him laughing with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The New York Times described the moment as a “smiling manifestation of a troika that Moscow had recently said it hoped to revive,” noting the optics of closeness between Modi and Putin, who even shared a ride to a meeting on the sidelines.

India’s outreach to Russia has continued. This week, a delegation of 20 Indian companies participated in this year’s Moscow International Tool Expo, the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), a body under India’s Ministry of Commerce & Industry, said in a statement Monday.

“Our engineering exports to Russia is growing rapidly and expected to reach $1.75 billion this year,” FIEO President S C Ralhan said in the statement, adding that the participation in the exhibition will “deepen commercial ties” and help in boosting bilateral trade between the two nations.

But experts say that Russia remains a limited partner compared with the U.S.

India exported $4.88 billion to Russia and imported $63.84 billion in fiscal 2025, according to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation. By contrast, the U.S. accounted for 18% of India’s exports, compared with only 1% for Russia, said Hermann of Oxford Economics.