Trump retreats from ‘losing India to China’ remark, calls India-US ties ‘special’ 

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday changed his stance on losing “India and Russia to China”, saying he does not think that has happened. In a press conference at the White House, he mentioned that he “gets along well” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

The U.S. President also responded to “resetting ties” with India, saying that he will “always be friends” with Modi, calling India-US ties a very special relationship. “I always will, I'll always be friends with Modi. He's a great Prime Minister, he's great. I'll always be friends. But I just don't like what he's doing at this particular moment. But India and the U.S. have a special relationship. There's nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion,” Trump said. 

In the same breath, he said India buying so much oil from Russia is disappointing. "I get along very well with Modi, as you know, it was great, he was here a couple of months ago. In fact, we went to the rose garden to have a news conference,” Trump said. 

Trump backtracks from his comment made in a Truth Social post about losing India and Russia to China, with a picture of PM Modi with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The post came in after camaraderie between Modi, XI, and Putin gained global traction at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Tianjin drew global attention. “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” The post said. 

In the same media conference, Trump criticised the European Union after Brussels fined Google €2.95 billion for favouring its own ad tech business, saying the fine was “not fair“. He also argued that the EU is using these fines as a “source to run Europe”.

“The European Union, I don't know why they do it, but they have been fining them numbers that have been astronomical. Apple, $17 billion, in a case that a lot of people think they weren't guilty. And now I'm going to be speaking to the European Union, and it’s not fair. Google just got fined, they're up to $16.5 billion, and people say there was nothing wrong with what they did. It's almost a source of income to run Europe,” he said.