new delhi, Sept 5
Rattled by the solidarity shown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, United States President Donald Trump on Friday said the US may have lost India and Russia to China.
Posting on his Truth Social platform, the US president sarcastically wished India, Russia and China a “long and prosperous future together”.
This is what the US President posted on Truth Social, “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together! President Donald J. Trump.” Along with his post, Trump shared an old photo of the three leaders together.
Reacting to Trump’s latest post, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) declined to comment on the US President’s remarks in which he mentioned India, Russia and China. “I have no comments to offer on this post at this time,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to media queries while addressing his weekly media briefing in New Delhi.
India also rejected the remarks made by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, with the MEA spokesperson calling them “inaccurate and misleading statements”.
Navarro, in an interview with Bloomberg Television last week, had alleged, “India is helping feed the Russian war machine. I mean Modi’s war, because the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi.”
At a weekly briefing, Jaiswal said, “We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Navarro, and obviously, we reject them.” On ties with Washington, Jaiswal underlined the importance of the bilateral relationship. “We have also spoken about it earlier. This relationship between the United States and India is very important for us. Both our countries share a comprehensive global strategic partnership, which is anchored in our shared interests, democratic values and robust people-to-people ties,” he said.
“This partnership has weathered several transitions and challenges. We remain focused on the substantive agenda that our two countries have committed to, and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests,” he added. Jaiswal also highlighted the ongoing cooperation between the two countries, stating, “As you would have seen, I would draw your attention to a joint military exercise that is underway in Alaska.
A few days ago, there was a 2+2 inter-sessional meeting… Talks between both countries are going on, and we are committed to strengthening our partnership.”
On trade issues, the MEA spokesperson affirmed that India “continues to remain engaged with the US side on trade issues”.
Barely a few days ago, the US President had claimed that New Delhi had offered to reduce its tariffs on American imports to “nothing” in response to the imposition of a 50 per cent levy on Indian goods by Washington.
Trump has been repeatedly calling India the “most tariffed nation” in the world.
