The strangest side effect of Donald Trump’s foreign-policy-by-tariff methods was the participation by Indian military experts in the joint Russia-Belarus “Zapad” military exercises held in the last few days. These exercises – for which Vladimir Putin visited a firing range in western Russia to see Russian and Belarusian troops, tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft systems and warplanes defeat fictional foreign-backed insurgents – were a rehearsal for conflict by Russia and Belarus with their Nato neighbours.

Indian premier Narendra Modi attended the recent Chinese-hosted international economic conference partly, I guess, as a response to Trump’s imposition of 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exports to the US to penalise their consumption of Russian oil and gas exports.

According to a report in the UK Times, the defence ministry in India sent 65 military personnel, drawn mainly from the Indian army’s elite Kumaon Regiment, to participate in the Zapad war games.

The Indian defence ministry is quoted as explaining that the........

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