US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be at the top of US President Donald Trump’s list of leaders to meet at the G20 Summit. He also said that the US and India were “very close” to finalising the trade deal and that Trump is expected to visit India next year.In an interview to India Today, the ambassador said he expected PM Modi’s visit to Florida for the G20 Summit in December to go beyond the multilateral gathering, signalling a possible bilateral with Trump. The two leaders have not held a bilateral meeting since ties came under strain over Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on India.“If you asked the President, ‘You have 35 people coming. Who do you want to see?’, the Prime Minister would be at the top of that list,” Gor said when asked about G20 meet, which is going to be held in Florida in December, adding, “Because the President considers the Prime Minister a friend, I anticipate that there will be more to that visit than just a group meeting.”“The trade deal is being reworked after the Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision, but we are very close,” he said, adding he hoped the agreement would be finalised within the next few months, stressing that negotiations of such scale often took time.“People ask me, ‘It has been a year’, but the European Union has been negotiating for more than 20 years and it is still not done. We are way ahead of a lot of other partners,” the close aide of Trump said.Gor also praised Prime Minister Modi for bringing stability to India, saying it had made the country an attractive partner for the United States. “India doing well is a great thing for us. We want a stable India. We want to work with a stable India,” he said.Gor said India should “get used to” more frequent visits by senior US officials as Washington seeks a closer relationship with New Delhi. Secretary of State Marco Rubio returns to India in October, months after his four-day visit in May this year for the Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting.Story continues below this ad“This is very rare, that the Secretary of State would come twice in such a short time. My message was very clear: get used to it,” Gor said. Three governors from large US states were expected to visit India before the end of the year.He added that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar could travel to the United States three times over the next four months, including for the United Nations and the G20.Emphasising that Quad remained central to cooperation among India, the US, Japan and Australia – partners that trust each other – he said, “Any time the four leaders are at a place, Quad meeting will be held.” Prime Ministers of Japan and Australia are also likely to visit Florida for the G20 Summit being hosted by the US.The next Quad ministerial meeting will be held in Sydney next month, with Rubio expected to attend, Gor said, adding that the four countries were also working towards a leaders’ summit, possibly later this year, although the meeting had not been finalised.Story continues below this adForeign Secretary Vikram Misri recently hosted a meeting of Quad Sherpas in New Delhi, attended by Gor; Elly Lawson, Deputy Secretary, Strategic Planning and Coordination Group, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia; and, Hiroyuki Namazu, Senior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan.India was supposed to host the Quad summit last year, but its ties with the US were strained after Trump’s claims of mediation between India and Pakistan post Operation Sindoor and Washington’s decision to impose heavy tariffs on Delhi. The two countries are currently firming up a bilateral trade deal.