US President Donald Trump has said that he has lost India and Russia to China. The remark comes days after the leaders of India, Russia and China met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting. The US president shared a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin together and said the US seems to have lost both India and Russia.
“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform.
The remark comes amid strained India-US and China-US ties due to Trump’s tariff regime. Trump has repeated a number of times that the 50% tariffs on India was taken to force Russia to come to the take for Ukraine peace talks. However, Trump’s aides have made several statements saying that the slow progress of India-US trade deal and New Delhi’s stance of no compromise on several sectors infuriated Trump.
Meanwhile, reacting to the post, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said “no comments as of now”.
SCO Summit 2025
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Putin and other world leaders reached China last week to attend the summit meet of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The meeting’s timing was crucial as both India and China affirmed to boost their ties to reduce the effect of Trump’s tariffs.
PM Modi called for stronger relations between the Asian neighbours to minimise the impact of the decisions made by the US. Without naming Trump, PM Modi, on a number of occasions, called out the West for selfish decisions and vowed that India would never compromise on the requirements of its people, especially farmers.
China also slammed the US and said it backs India against the “bullying” tariffs. Trump has been trying to build pressure on Russia to end the Ukraine conflict to fulfill his ‘Nobel peace prize’ dream.
India-China’s renewed ties
India and Chine went through a rough patch after the Galwan clashes in May 2020 in Ladakh. The border issue led to a number of meetings between the top defence and security officials of the two countries. Xi and PM Modi met at the SCO summit after five long years of frosty exchanges and diplomatic distance.
The meeting was the first formal huddle between the two leaders in nearly ten months. Xi told Modi it is the ‘’right choice” for India and China to be friends, given the changing global landscape.
Before the SCO summit, Chinese Foreign Minister and envoy backed New Delhi-Beijing relations and said that a they were ready for a “new chapter of Elephant Dragon tango”.