US may have lost India, Russia to China

US President Donald Trump, on Friday, said India and Russia appear to have been “lost” to China after their leaders met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

On Tuesday, Mr Xi hosted over 20 non-Western leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin.

This was Mr Modi’s first visit to China in seven years, marking an improvement in relations between the two Asian giants. Both countries are founding members of BRICS+ but have several areas of disagreement including border disputes.

Mr Trump, expressing his disappointment with the meeting, described Mr Modi and Mr Putin as having switched sides to “deepest dark China.”

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

The post included a photo of the three leaders standing side by side at Xi’s summit in China.

India and the US have been longtime allies, but their ties slowly began to deteriorate after the Trump administration placed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports.

The administration accused the Asian country of fuelling deadly attacks on Ukraine by purchasing Russian oil.

Also, after the conflict between India and Pakistan in May, Mr Trump believed he brokered peace and suggested his efforts were “Nobel Prize-worthy”

However, India insisted that the ceasefire was reached through direct bilateral dialogue without any third-party mediation being involved.

Mr Trump’s recent statement further increases the speculation about the rift between the two countries.

However, when asked about his remark later on Friday, the US president downplayed his previous statement, saying that the US relationship with India is still intact.

Mr Trump insisted that he did not think the US lost India to China.

“I don’t think we have. “I’ve been very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil, as you know, from Russia. And I let them know that,” he said.

He added that he would always be friends with Mr Modi, stressing that India and the US share a special relationship and that there is no cause for concern.