PM’S REACTION TO TRUMP’S FRIENDSHIP STATEMENT

PM’S REACTION TO TRUMP’S FRIENDSHIP STATEMENT

6-SEP-ENG 4

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

DELHI------------------------Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reacted to the praise expressed by US President Donald Trump. PM Modi said that we wholeheartedly appreciate President Trump's sentiments and positive assessment of India-US relations and fully support him. He further said that India and the US have an extremely positive and visionary comprehensive and global strategic partnership, which strengthens the interests of both countries and international stability. Describing India-US relations as positive, PM Modi said that the two countries have a comprehensive and global strategic partnership, which strengthens international cooperation and stability.

Earlier, Trump had also said that the US lost India to China. However, he later backtracked from his statement and clarified that he did not intend to blame anyone. He was asked about his statement at a press conference at the White House on Friday.

Trump had said that the US lost India to China, but later he backtracked from his statement and said, "I don't think we have blamed anyone." He also expressed displeasure over India's oil purchase from Russia and said that "India is buying too much oil from Russia. We have imposed a very heavy tariff of 50% on India." Despite this, Trump said that he gets along well with Prime Minister Modi.

US President Donald Trump on Friday shared a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin on the social media platform 'Truth Social' and wrote that India and Russia may have gone with China. He said, "It seems that we have lost India and Russia to China. Now may they spend a long and happy future together." In recent days, rhetoric against India has increased from the Trump administration and its supporters. White House advisor Peter Navarro also alleged that American jobs are being affected due to India's high tariff policies. After this, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview to Bloomberg that America is always ready for talks, but for this India will have to agree to some conditions. He said that India will have to open its market, stop buying oil from Russia and distance itself from the BRICS group. If India does not do this, it may have to face a 50 percent tariff. Lutnick also expressed America's opposition to the increasing share of Russian crude oil in India's oil imports and called it completely wrong.

On this, India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made it clear that India will continue to buy oil from Russia as per its needs. She said, "We have to do what is in our interest. We will undoubtedly continue to buy oil from Russia."