At the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, the leaders of two of America’s greatest foes, China and Russia, made a public display of affection with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hinting that India, long aligned with Russia but seemingly moving toward the United States, may be reconsidering its position.
Numerous countries attended the summit, but the most enduring image pushed by the media was the embrace shared by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Modi. India and China’s relations with each other had soured after they battled at their border in 2020. In addition, in 2025, when India and Pakistan were fighting, “Pakistan’s armed forces heavily used China-made equipment, including fighter jets and radar systems. A senior army officer in Delhi said Beijing also provided ‘live inputs’ to Pakistan on Indian positions,” as the BBC reported.
Modi had not traveled to China in seven years, but this visit followed President Trump’s decision to impose 50% tariffs on India, as he warned India against purchasing Russian oil.
Still, The Wall Street Journal opined, “Chinese analysts also don’t expect New Delhi to pull away from Washington, given the many intractable problems between the two neighbors—including the border dispute.”
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On August 6, Trump signed an executive order “imposing tariffs on India in response to its continued purchase of Russian Federation oil, and establishing a process for the potential imposition of similar tariffs on other countries that directly or indirectly import oil from the Russian Federation.” Trump imposed an additional 25% tariff on imports from India, effective August 27. “India’s importation of Russian Federation oil undermines U.S. efforts to counter Russia’s harmful activities,” the order stated. “India’s subsequent reselling of this oil on the open market, often at significant profit, further enables the Russian Federation’s economy to fund its aggression.”
On Monday, Trump responded to the news of the supposed rapprochement between India and China by writing on Truth Social that India had offered to cut their tariffs on American products to zero:
What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest “client,” but we sell them very little – Until now a totally one sided relationship, and it has been for many decades. The reason is that India has charged us, until now, such high Tariffs, the most of any country, that our businesses are unable to sell into India. It has been a totally one sided disaster! Also, India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the U.S. They have now offered to cut their Tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago. Just some simple facts for people to ponder!!!
