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US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would "always be friends" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and reaffirmed the "special relationship" between India and the United States. Speaking to ANI, Trump was asked if he was ready to reset ties with India, to which he replied that there was "nothing to worry about".
When asked by ANI, "Are you ready to reset relations with India at this point?", Trump said, "I always will. I'll always be friends with (PM) Modi. He's a great Prime Minister. I'll always be friends, but I just don't like what he is doing at this particular moment. But India and the United States have a very special relationship. There is nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion".
Trump, who has made tariffs a central theme of his economic and foreign policy, has imposed a steep 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods entering the US.
At the press brief, he also rowed back from his own Truth Social post that America had "lost India and Russia to China," insisting he did not believe that was the case. Responding to ANI at the media session at the White House, Trump voiced frustration over India's continued purchase of Russian oil, highlighted steep US tariffs on New Delhi, but stressed his "very good" relations with Prime Minister Modi.
On being asked to whom he blames for losing India to China in his post earlier on Friday, the US President said, "I don't think we have. I've been very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil from Russia. I let them know that. We put a very big tariff on India- 50 per cent, a very high tariff. I get along very well with (PM) Modi, as you know. He was here a couple of months ago, in fact, we went to the Rose Garden and had a press conference."
'Lost India to China': Trump
His remarks come after he said India and Russia seem to have been "lost" to China after PM Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week at the Shanghai Cooperation Organidation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, expressing his annoyance at New Delhi and Moscow as Beijing pushes a new world order.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday seemed to downplay US President Trump's remarks that India was drifting towards China, reiterating the Centre's official stance that New Delhi remains committed to its partnership with Washington despite ongoing tariff disputes.
(With agency inputs)
