At the APEC Summit in South Korea on October 29, 2025, Trump’s explosive remarks sent shockwaves through diplomatic circles. In a single stroke, Trump tore through India’s carefully crafted image of restraint and responsibility. By revealing that he had personally warned India against initiating war with Pakistan, threatening the “harshest trade tariffs” if New Delhi crossed the line, Trump publicly dismantled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s narrative of being a responsible regional power. What India sought to project as strategic maturity was, in fact, exposed as reckless brinkmanship.

Trump’s statement coincided with his decision to double the tariff on India’s Russian oil imports. This move was both symbolic and strategic— a calculated message that Washington would no longer tolerate New Delhi’s duplicity in exploiting global crises for domestic politics. The........

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