{"id":392794,"date":"2025-09-02T20:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/392794\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T20:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:37:10","slug":"modis-warm-meeting-with-xi-shows-impact-of-trumps-tariff-tantrum-narendra-modi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/392794\/","title":{"rendered":"Modi\u2019s warm meeting with Xi shows impact of Trump\u2019s \u2018tariff tantrum\u2019 | Narendra Modi"},"content":{"rendered":"

They stood together like old friends, heads thrown back in jovial laughter, clutching one another\u2019s hands affectionately. Except this was no ordinary gathering of three men, but a meeting of three of the most powerful non-western leaders: Vladimir Putin<\/a>, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

The overt displays of intimacy were widely regarded by observers as a telling message of defiance aimed at their western counterparts, in particular Donald Trump, who just a few days earlier had slapped India with 50% import tariffs<\/a>, among the harshest of the US president\u2019s trade penalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia likes other great powers to know that New Delhi has options,\u201d said Christopher Clary, an associate professor of political science at University at Albany, State University of New York. \u201cOne advantage of being in lots of clubs is you can make high-profile entrances to those clubs if you\u2019re upset with how things are going in other relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was Modi\u2019s first visit to China in seven years and the hostilities that had come to define the countries\u2019 relationship in recent years were nowhere to be seen. Instead, as the Indian prime minister arrived in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit<\/a>, he received a far more effusive welcome from the Chinese premier than most guests were granted.<\/p>\n

The leaders\u2019 brotherly encounter in the city of Tianjin<\/a> did not go unnoticed in the Oval Office. Hours after the meeting, Trump went on another tirade against India, calling trade with the country a \u201cone-sided disaster\u201d, while his trade adviser Peter Navarro said in a social media post: \u201cIt is a shame to see Modi getting in bed with Xi Jinping and Putin. I\u2019m not sure what he\u2019s thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meeting of Putin, Modi and Xi was interpreted as a message of defiance to their western counterparts. Photograph: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Even a year ago, such a scene between Modi and Xi was difficult to imagine. The two countries had remained in a hostile military standoff since 2020 after China\u2019s rapid encroachments and troop incursions along its mountainous Himalayan border with India led to a violent clash between soldiers on the two sides.<\/p>\n

It was followed by a mammoth mobilisation of military personnel, infrastructure and weapons along both sides of the border. Anti-China sentiment ran rampant in India, with hundreds of Chinese apps \u2013 including TikTok \u2013 banned and Chinese companies prevented from investing in India.<\/p>\n

The US had seized upon the tensions to cultivate its close ties with India further, viewing the country as a critical counterweight to China\u2019s rise.<\/p>\n

Yet Trump\u2019s own foreign policy position has accelerated something of a geopolitical repositioning. The US, once seen as an unshakable ally to India, is now viewed in New Delhi as a turbulent, even hostile adversary.<\/p>\n

The double tariffs on India, which Trump announced without warning, appear to be a punishment after falling out with Modi, who refused to credit the US president with halting possible nuclear war between India and Pakistan<\/a> in May. Particular umbrage was taken in New Delhi at Trump\u2019s attempts to use tariffs to shape India\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, China has observed the alienation of New Delhi and Washington with overt glee and made it clear its priority now is a complete normalisation of Indo-Chinese ties<\/a>. During Modi\u2019s China visit, he and Xi agreed to friendlier relations, which include stabilising their border and reopening their economies to each other. Speaking on Sunday, Xi said it was \u201cvital to be friends, a good neighbour, and the dragon and the elephant to come together\u201d.<\/p>\n

As analysts emphasised, the beginning of a rapprochement between India and China pre-dated Trump\u2019s second term. Nonetheless, the prospect of a second unpredictable Trump term had been seen by many as a driver for China\u2019s sudden willingness to discuss disengagement with India.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis meeting was a partial response to Trump\u2019s tariff tantrum,\u201d said Clary. \u201cThe core reality for India is that it does not have enough military capability to be confident of how an India-China fight would go. In this Trumpian world, India may not be able to find an outside ally that it can depend on and so it needs to make sure the India-China relationship is calm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the 2020 clashes, Modi had been seen as gung-ho in strengthening the India-China relationship, hosting Xi in India just a few months after being elected prime minister in 2014. Harsh V Pant, a professor of international relations at King\u2019s College London\u2019s India Institute, said it was likely the two leaders would try to revert the relationship to how it had been five years ago, despite the border remaining a challenge.<\/p>\n

Even with the risk of infuriating its western allies, analysts emphasised India had a lot to gain from bettering ties with China. Much of India\u2019s manufacturing, which Modi is trying to boost, is reliant on materials and rare earths from China. China, meanwhile, stands to gain economically if it regains access to India\u2019s market.<\/p>\n

However, Pant emphasised that there were still significant limitations on the India-China relationship beyond the border tensions. China remains a major backer and supplier of weapons to Pakistan \u2013 widely seen as a way to keep India\u2019s regional power in check \u2013 and it was Chinese jets and weaponry that were used against India during the India-Pakistan hostilities in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a mistake to view this as some kind of a grand rapprochement between India and China,\u201d he said. \u201cIn India, the trust deficit with China is still very, very high and there are enough pressure points that will keep the relationship a bit tenuous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They stood together like old friends, heads thrown back in jovial laughter, clutching one another\u2019s hands affectionately. Except…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-392794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115136629599738204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}