May’ve lost India, Russia to ‘darkest China’: Trump

US President Donald Trump on Friday triggered a controversy by sharing a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping walking together at a multilateral summit and sarcastically commenting that the western nation “may have lost India and Russia to China”.

Trump released the image on his Truth Social account and captioned it as, “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!”

The remark was widely read as a swipe at what Trump see as increasing alignment among New Delhi, Moscow and Beijing even as India continues to project “strategic autonomy” in its foreign policy. Modi, Xi and Putin had recently shared the stage at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China’s Tianjin and the images of the trio had sparked considerable attention in the West. PM Modi separately held bilateral talks with both Chinese and Russian Presidents.

Asked for a response, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it had “no comment to offer at this time”. However, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal underscored the resilience of the India-US ties when pressed further with a series of queries. “As far as the India-US relations are concerned, this relationship is very important for us.

Both countries share a comprehensive global strategic partnership anchored in shared interests, democratic values and robust people-to-people ties,” Jaiswal said. He said the partnership had “weathered several transitions and challenges” and continued to deepen through ongoing defence, economic and diplomatic engagements.

Jaiswal pointed to a joint India-US military exercise currently underway in Alaska, the recent 2 2 inter-sessional dialogue and the visit by a US defence policy group delegation to India as evidence of the partnership’s momentum. The MEA spokesperson also responded to the recent remarks of White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro, terming them as “misleading”.

Defending Trump’s decision to impose 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports, Navarro had recently shared a picture of Prime Minister Modi meditating in a saffron robe. The post triggered a major outrage on social media, with critics accusing Navarro of mocking India’s cultural symbols and politicising religious imagery.

Navarro accused India of being an “oil money laundromat for the Kremlin” and described it as “strategic freeloading”. “We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Navarro and we reject them,” Jaiswal said while responding to a question.

The MEA termed as “speculative” the newspaper reports suggeting that Trump was unlikely to visit India for the Quad summit. “I will not like to comment on speculative media reports on the issue,” said Jaiswal.

Will continue buying Russian oil: Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said India would continue to buy Russian oil, stressing that decisions would be guided solely by national interest. “Where we buy our oil from, especially it being a big ticket foreign exchange related item, is a call we will take based on what suits us best. So, we will undoubtedly be buying Russian oil,” she said.

India to be at table in month or two: Lutnick

Terming India the “vowel” between Russia and China in BRICS, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said New Delhi will try to make a deal with President Donald Trump in a couple of months. “In a month or two, I think India is going to be at the table, and they’re going to say sorry, and try to make a deal with Trump,” he said.