A former Pentagon official is heaping all credit for India and Russia’s intensified international camaraderie onto US President Donald Trump more than anyone else. Ex-Department of Defence official Michael Rubin told ANI, the 79-year-old American leader deserved a Nobel Prize “for bringing India and Russia together the way he did.”

Currently, a senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute, Rubin remarks generated buzz online right after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended a warm red carpet welcome to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his two-day State visit to the South Asian nation. It became the Russian leader’s first such trip in four years.

ALSO READ

Ex-Pentagon official says Trump responsible for stronger India-Russia connections

Voicing his thoughts on Putin’s India visit and deepened friendship with PM Modi, Michael Rubin told ANI, “From Russia’s perspective, the visit is extremely positive, and India has bestowed honours on Vladimir Putin that he can hardly get anywhere else in the world. I would actually argue that Donald Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for bringing India and Russia together the way he did.”

Although Putin has since departed for Russia following the Asian trip from December 5 to 6, Indian leadership accorded him with a ceremonial welcome and tri-services Guard of Honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday.

India-Russia agreements depict ‘animosity’ towards Trump?

Pointing the finger at the multiple agreements PM Modi and President Putin signed in India this week, the ex-Pentagon official wondered how many of those had been “motivated by animosity towards the way in which President Donald Trump has treated Prime Minister Modi and India more broadly.”

While Modi addressing the joint press conference at the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit in New Delhi, it was revealed that both countries had partnered up for 16 wide-ranging agreements pertaining to migration, defence, trade, healthcare, economy, media and more.

ALSO READ

Rubin also took a swipe at Trump’s recent handling of US-India ties since his re-election as the POTUS. The US president targeted the South Asian nation for its Russian Oil trade relationship with Putin’s country by slapping hefty and punitive tariff rate of 50% on its imports to the US.

“It is being perceived in two different ways. If you’re Donald Trump, it’s being perceived through the lens of ‘I told you so’ that this embrace of India towards Russia is affirming what Donald Trump wants his spin to be. Because Donald Trump isn’t going to admit that he is the one at fault,” Rubin continued.

“If you’re the 65 % of Americans who dislike Donald Trump, according to the recent polls,” Rubin added, possibly alluding to a weeks-old ABC News-Ipsos survey that indicated 65% of Americans disapprove Trump’s handling of tariffs. “…then what we are seeing now is the result of Donald Trump’s gross incompetence…A lot of us are still flabbergasted at how Donald Trump has reversed US-India ties. Many people question what motivates Donald Trump.”

Trump’s swept over by Pakistan’s ‘flattery’?

Given the recent closed-door White House meeting between the US president, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir, Rubin also took note of how Pakistanis’ “flattery” had supposedly influenced Trump.

“More likely, it was bribery on the part of the Pakistanis or their backers in Turkey and Qatar towards Donald Trump. This is one disastrous bribe that is going to saddle America with a strategic deficit for decades to come,” he went on.

The former Pentagon official then turned to dragging the Trump administration for “being hypocritical” about India’s dealings with Russia. Noting that PM Modi’s first and foremost commitment is to represent Indian interests, he told ANI, “The US is being hypocritical because we purchase from Russia. We purchase goods and materials for which we don’t have alternative markets. We are being hypocritical when we lecture India.”

“If we do not want India to purchase Russian fuel, what are we going to do to provide fuel to India at a cheaper price and in the quantities India needs?” he added. “If we don’t have an answer for that, our best approach is simply to shut up because India needs to take care of Indian security first.”

Even Putin echoed similar sentiments during his recent televised interview on India Today. Countering Trump’s clashing views on India’s continued trade ties with Russia, Putin said, “The US continues to buy nuclear fuel from us for their nuclear power plants. That is also fuel. Energy. This is uranium for nuclear power plants that are functioning in the US.”

Pointing out the US’ hypocrisy, he added, “If the US has the right to purchase fuel from us, why should India be deprived of such a right? That is a matter to be studied closely, and we are prepared to discuss that and debate that with President Trump.”