Why a miffed Trump reached out to India after SCO

Thu, 11 September 2025

11:51

The PM with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at the SCO

Senior journalist and columnist Nitin Gokhale writes on X on the thaw in the relationship between India and the US:

"More than 48 hours after the Trump-Modi exchange on X lowering the heat in India-US relations, many questions remain on why and how it happened, who were involved and what next?

"In true traditions of speculative analysis, lets look at the last eight months of the Trump Presidency first. When he took office on 20 January, Trump was utterly confident, he would stop the Russia-Ukraine war soonest, may be in just 15 days. That has not happened despite the Alaska summit with President Putin. Reason No. 1 for Trump's frustration.

"Reason No. 2: China thumbed its nose at the US in the tariff war early in Trump's tenure. DC hasn't got its way there. Then, during the India-Pakistan war, the ever obsequious Pakistani establishment pandered to his ego but India refused to give credit to Trump in stopping the hostilities and rightly so since the understanding was arrived at bilaterally and the US President had no role to play. Reason No. 3 for his anger.

"So the egoist decided to launch an unhinged attack on India personally and using his hounds M/S Navarro and Lutnick expecting an equally wild response from India. New Delhi played it cool, further angering White House.

"The last straw came in the form of images and videos of Modi, Xi and Putin's bonhomie at the SCO summit in China. Saner voices in the US began to push back against Trump's self-destructive India policy.

"So some of them, reached out to New Delhi. Aware of the importance of the ties with the US, New Delhi too reciprocated cautiously. After a very high level contact between the two sides (details remain hazy at the moment), Trump, clearly answering a pre-decided Q, called Modi his good friend; the Prime Minister reciprocated the sentiment immediately and just like that, the two sides appear to have walked back from the precipice.

"How long will the truce last is anybody's guess but several geo-political and domestic factors will play a part on what trajectory the damaged Indo-US relationship takes in coming months."

Also read: India-US ties: A gulf that was bridged on a golf course

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