US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is “very close” to India and shares a strong personal rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the British PM's countryside residence, Trump said he has a “very good relationship” with Modi and also wished him on his 75th birthday -- a gesture reciprocated by the Indian leader with a “beautiful” statement.
“I'm very close to India. I'm very close to the Prime Minister of India. I spoke to him the other day to wish him a Happy Birthday," Trump told reporters.
"We have a very good relationship, and he put out a beautiful statement too. But I sanctioned them,” he said, in response to a question about his plans on dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump's call on Tuesday, a day before Modi turned 75, is being seen as a significant gesture as part of the US' efforts to reset ties with India amid strain over tariff issues.
The Trump administration doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent, including a 25 per cent additional duties for India's purchase of Russian crude oil.
Defending its purchase of Russian crude oil, India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics.
“Very simply, if the price of oil comes down, Putin is going to drop out. He's going to have no choice. He's going to drop out of that war,” Trump said, adding that he was forced to sanction European nations and China too for buying oil from Russia.
“China is paying a very large tariff right now to the United States, but I'm willing to do other things, but not when the people that I'm fighting for are buying oil from Russia. If the oil price comes down, very simply, Russia will settle; and the oil price is way down, we got it way down,” he claimed.
During the press conference, Trump noted that Putin had been his “biggest disappointment" over the ongoing conflict with Ukraine and went on to repeat his claim about intervening in the India-Pakistan face-off earlier this year.
“We did seven (conflicts) and most of them were not thought to be settleable. We did India, and we did Pakistan. That's two nuclear (countries),” he said.
“That was purely for trade. You [India and Pakistan] want to trade with us, you're going to have to get along. And they [India and Pakistan] were going at it hot and heavy,” he said.
In the aftermath of Operation Sindoor in retaliation of the Pakistan-backed terrorist strike in Pahalgam in April, Trump had taken to on social media to proclaim that India and Pakistan had agreed to a "full and immediate" ceasefire and repeatedly claimed that he told the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours that America will do a "lot of trade" with them if they stopped the conflict.
India has consistently denied any third-party intervention, maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.
Trump and wife Melania, who were in the UK on a two-day State Visit at the invitation of King Charles III, departed from Chequers to board Air Force One back to Washington soon after the press interaction.
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