Trump suggests India is moving towards ‘deepest, darkest’ China orbit

US President Donald Trump suggested on Friday that India is drifting towards China’s orbit, even as his assertive tariffs and public rebukes have tested ties with New Delhi. Aides are warning that India could soon regret its stance and even face new curbs. “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together,” the “America first” president wrote on social media. His remarks were posted alongside a photo of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at this week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin. China’s embassy in Washington in a statement to the Post emphasised that that the country’s “development of relations with any other country aims at enhancing the common interests and well-being of the two peoples and is never targeted at any third party”. “The world should be a stage for win-win cooperation, not a battlefield where one side wins and the other loses,” said embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu. “The interactions among countries should be based on equality, and no country should be a pawn in geopolitical struggles.” Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for India’s foreign ministry, declined to comment on Trump’s post, but said that the two countries remain focused on the relationship based on “mutual respect and shared interest”. Later in the day, Trump said he did not think that the US had “lost” India when asked whom he “blame[d] for losing India to China”. Trump added that he was “very disappointed” with India for continuing to buy Russian oil, calling the 50 per cent tariffs he imposed on Indian imports “very hot”. “I get along very well with Modi. He was here a couple of months ago,” he said. Trump’s posting, which lumped both India and Russia into the so-called China camp, apparently underscored his growing frustration with leaders he once courted personally. His seeming sense of betrayal stems from his warmer approach towards Putin compared to his predecessors, aiming to halt the nearly four-year war in Ukraine, and his personal rapport with Modi, whom he has called his friend. Trump hosted Modi in February at the White House and then hosted Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, for a summit. Hours later on Friday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said India would apologise soon to Washington, and urged New Delhi to quit the Brics alliance of major emerging national economies, which also includes China, Russia, and Brazil, and to back the US dollar. “In a month or two months, I think India is going to be at the table, and they’re going to say they’re sorry, and they’re going to try to make a deal with Donald Trump,” Lutnick, a key member of Trump’s trade team involved in tariff negotiations, said in a Bloomberg interview. “And it will be on Donald Trump’s desk how he wants to deal with Modi, and we leave that to him,” he said. Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and conspiracy theorist who often talks to Trump and reportedly played a role in the president’s April purge of six national security officials, including those handling China policy, also hinted at US-India ties being further hit by new restrictions on outsourced IT work. “President Trump is now considering blocking US IT companies from outsourcing their work to Indian companies,” she posted on X, quipping, “in other words, you don’t need to press 2 for English anymore”. “Make Call Centers American Again,” she added. The US brings in 62 per cent of India’s IT outsourcing revenue, powered by cost savings and 5.4 million developers. Despite recent tariffs, IT outsourcing continues to be a strong sector for India. Then, in another social media post, Peter Navarro, the White House trade and manufacturing adviser, then accused India of having the “highest tariffs in world”, costing US jobs. The US has imposed tariffs of up to 50 per cent on Indian goods, a move aimed at punishing India for its Russian oil imports and historically high tariffs, which Indian trade minister Piyush Goyal has slammed as “unilateral” and disruptive. In recent weeks, Beijing has backed New Delhi on the issue, calling the US a “bully”. Meanwhile, Chinese negotiators have continued to work with their American counterparts to chalk out a trade agreement by November. The SCO summit in Tianjin highlighted warming ties between India and China, with Modi and Xi advancing border disengagement and easing visa rules for Chinese nationals. Pictures of Xi, Modi and Putin smiling together went viral on social media, garnering millions of views around the world. Unlike China, with whom New Delhi’s ties hit rock bottom in 2020 following a bloody border clash in their disputed Himalayan border area, India and Russia share long-standing ties and mutual trust. For decades, New Delhi has pursued strategic autonomy, straddling Beijing-led forums from Brics and the SCO to the US-led Quad with Japan and Australia. In recent years, especially under former president Joe Biden, Washington was seen courting India as a key partner in countering China in the Indo-Pacific. Before travelling to the SCO summit, Modi stressed in an interview that “stable and predictable” India-China ties were “crucial for a multipolar Asia and world”. On Wednesday, during China’s military parade marking the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender, Trump sent “warmest regards” to Xi, Putin and Kim Jong Un, alleging they were plotting against the US in another social media post. However, a day later, Trump described the parade as “very, very impressive”.

Trump suggests India is moving towards ‘deepest, darkest’ China orbit

Aides warn that New Delhi could regret the move and might face new curbs