New Delhi: “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together.” This is what Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to China for the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit and met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia President Vladimir Putin. The optics of the images that were shared on social media and the bonhomie between the three — Modi in the company of Xi and Putin — set off a global discussion.

Trump’s outburst reflected more than just irritation at a photo-op. It came against the backdrop of his steep 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods, his advisers publicly chastising New Delhi, and a growing perception in Washington that PM Modi’s outreach to Xi and Putin signalled a tilt away from the West.

Dear Mr Trump, the US never had India to begin with. What you’ve ‘lost’ is an illusion. India’s foreign policy has always been about strategic autonomy, not being in anyone’s pocket. With Washington, New Delhi built a “strategic partnership” based on convergent interests and shared values, not dependence. You may have had a good relationship with PM Modi, but you squandered it. What took your predecessors 25 years to built, you broke that in weeks. This is why India has never truly trusted the United States.

The mistrust runs deep. In 1971, as India fought for the liberation of Bangladesh, Washington sided with Pakistan. That trust deficit never fully recovered, plunging further after the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998 and the sanctions that followed.

It was only in the early 2000s that relations revived, with Washington lifting sanctions and seeing India as a bet against China. Trade expanded, Indian talent powered US companies. In 2016, Washington designated India a “major defence partner”.

But, Trump........

© News9Live