President Donald Trump said Friday that both India and Russia appeared to be “lost” to China days after leaders from the three countries met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in China.
In the early morning, Trump shared a picture on Truth Social of Indian President Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping walking together at the summit on Monday.
“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” Trump wrote in the post.
The optics of the meeting conveyed a degree of posturing and signaling, considering that days ahead of the summit, Trump’s hefty 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods, in response to its purchases of Russian oil, took effect. Angling on India’s behalf seemed to continue a day after the meeting on Tuesday, when Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal expressed optimism that a deal with the U.S. could be reached by November.
“I do hope that things will get back on track soon and we will conclude a bilateral trade agreement by autumn, November or so, as was discussed by our two leaders in February,” he said.
Trump said Wednesday that secondary tariffs on India, which he stated cost Russia hundreds of billions of dollars, were just the first phase of potential penalties on Russia.
On Thursday, Trump spoke on a call with European leaders and encouraged them to end their purchases of Russian oil and to put economic pressure on China in response to its funding of Russia’s campaign, Breitbart News confirmed.
“President Macron and European leaders called President Trump into their ‘Coalition of the Willing’ meeting. President Trump emphasized that Europe must stop purchasing Russian oil that is funding the war — as Russia received €1.1 billion in fuel sales from the EU in one year,” a White House official told Breitbart News.
“The President also emphasized that European leaders must place economic pressure on China for funding Russia’s war efforts,” the official added.
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