PTI
Washington/New Delhi
It looks like the US has lost India and Russia to “darkest” China, President Donald Trump said on Friday in his latest remarks as ties between New Delhi and Washington continue to reel under possibly the worst phase in over two decades.
Trump’s latest post on social media came days after the bonhomie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chinese city of Tianjin drew global attention.
“Looks like we have lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” the US President said on Truth Social.
India declined to respond to Trump’s remarks that New Delhi is inching closer to China even as it rejected as “inaccurate and misleading” White House Trade advisor Peter Navarro’s attack on it for procurement of Russian crude oil.
At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal did not respond to questions on Trump’s post.
“I have no comments to offer on this post at this time,” he said responding to a question. Jaiswal, however, firmly rejected Navarro’s offensive remarks on India in the last few days. “We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Navarro, and obviously reject them,” Jaiswal said.
Last week, Navarro accused India of being an “oil money laundromat for the Kremlin” and described it as “strategic freeloading” New Delhi continuing to buy Russian weapons while urging American defence firms to transfer sensitive military technologies and set up manufacturing plants in India.
Jaiswal said India and the US are engaged on issues relating to trade. “The relationship between the United States and India is very important for us. Both our countries share a comprehensive global strategic partnership, which is anchored in our shared interests, democratic values and robust people-to-people ties,” he said.
The External Affairs Ministry spokesperson also repeated his previous remarks that the partnership has weathered several “transitions and challenges”.
“We remain focused on the substantive agenda that our two countries have committed to, and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests,” he said. Jaiswal also referred to a joint military exercise that is underway between Indian and American troops in Alaska.
Asked about reports of uncertainty over the annual Quad summit that India has to host over its frosty ties with the US, Jaiswal said he would not like to comment on speculations on the issue.
The relations between New Delhi and Washington are on a downturn after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50%, including a 25% additional duty for India’s purchase of Russian crude oil. The additional tariff has already come into effect from August 27.
India described the US action as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable” and even wondered why it has been singled out for the punitive action. Surprisingly, the US has not imposed any punitive measures on China, the largest importer of Russian crude oil.
Though the focus of the SCO summit on Monday was to ensure deeper security and economic complementarities among its member nations, what drew larger attention was the public display of bonhomie between Modi, Putin and Xi, signalling a broader convergence among the leading three powers.
A video of Modi and Putin holding hands and walking towards Xi, and then all three forming a close circle as good friends, went viral on social media. In his address at the summit, Xi elaborated on his vision for a new global security and economic order that prioritises the Global South.
Over the last few days, India-US ties have witnessed a major downturn after over two decades of close cooperation. The tension began after the collapse of negotiations for a trade deal, as well as Trump’s repeated claims that he resolved the military conflict between India and Pakistan in May. India has been maintaining that it ended following direct talks between the two sides.
