Trump says India and Russia appear ‘lost’ to ‘deepest, darkest China’
The US president has chilled US-India ties amid trade tensions and other disputes
[WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump on Friday (Sep 5) said that India and Russia seem to have been “lost” to China after their leaders met with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, expressing his annoyance at New Delhi and Moscow as Beijing pushes a new world order.
“Looks like we have lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” Trump wrote in a social media post accompanying a photo of the three leaders together at Xi’s summit in China.
Later on Friday, however, he told reporters that he did not think the US had lost India to China. “I don’t think we have,” he said.
“I have been very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil, as you know, from Russia. And I let them know that.”
Asked about Trump’s social media post, India’s foreign ministry told reporters in New Delhi that it had no comment. The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment and representatives for the Kremlin could not be immediately reached.
Xi hosted more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Putin and Modi were seen holding hands at the summit as they walked towards Xi before all three men stood side by side. “I will always be friends with Modi,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “He’s a great prime minister. He’s great. I will always be friends, but I just don’t like what he’s doing at this particular moment. But India and the United States have a special relationship. There’s nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion.”
Trump has chilled US-India ties amid trade tensions and other disputes. Trump this week said that he was “very disappointed” in Putin but not worried about growing Russia-China ties.
Trump has been frustrated at his inability to convince Russia and Ukraine to reach an end to their war, more than three years after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
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He told reporters on Thursday night at the White House that he planned to talk to Putin soon.
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