Donald Trump says India and Russia appear to have been ‘lost to deepest, darkest China’

United States President Donald Trump on Friday remarked that India and Russia appeared to have been “lost to deepest, darkest China”, five days after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!”

The US president posted a photograph of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit.

Modi had met Xi and Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on Sunday and Monday.

The multilateral forum includes India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran and five Eurasian nations.

The meetings came five days after a 50% tariff on goods imported from India to the US took effect.

The Trump administration had announced on August 6 that it would double the tariffs on goods imported from India to 50% for purchasing Russian oil amid the Ukraine war. A 25% so-called reciprocal tariff had already taken effect.

On Monday, after the summit concluded, Trump had described the US trade relationship with India as “totally one-sided” and reiterated his allegations that New Delhi charged inordinately high tariffs on American goods.

Trump has repeatedly alleged that India’s imports were fuelling Russia’s war in Ukraine.

New Delhi had previously said that it was “extremely unfortunate” that the US had chosen to impose additional tariffs on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.

White House official’s remarks misleading: MEA

The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday rejected White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s remark that the Russia-Ukraine conflict was “Modi’s war”, calling it “inaccurate and misleading”.

“We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Navarro and obviously we reject them,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly press briefing.

In August, Navarro had repeated US accusations that New Delhi was funding the Kremlin’s military campaign.

In an interview with Bloomberg, he had said that by buying Russian oil “at a discount”, India was helping Russia and hurting the US, which in turn has to finance Ukraine’s defence.

He had added that he was describing it as “Modi’s war” because “the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi”.

On Friday, Jaiswal said that the relationship between the US and India is very important for New Delhi.

“Both our countries share a comprehensive global strategic partnership,” he said. “This partnership has weathered several transitions and challenges…and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests.”

He added that talks between the two countries were ongoing and that New Delhi was committed to strengthening the partnership.