India, July 13 -- US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump's closest allies and an influential voice on American foreign policy, has died after what his office described as a "brief and sudden illness". He was 71.

Graham, who represented South Carolina in the Senate for more than two decades, was among the Republican Party's most outspoken supporters of Ukraine in its war against Russia and a leading advocate of tougher sanctions on Moscow.

Despite a bitter rivalry with Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential campaign, he went on to become one of his closest political allies.

Graham was a vocal critic of India's purchases of Russian oil amid the Ukraine war and repeatedly called for sanctions against co...