Photographs from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit told a story Washington did not want to hear. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen laughing with Russian President Vladimir Putin and conversing with Chinese President Xi Jinping, images that signalled to the West that Donald Trump’s America no longer commands the same gravitational pull.
In Tianjin, India used the SCO platform to demonstrate that its economic policies will not be dictated by punitive duties. Despite the United States slapping a 25 per cent penalty on New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil, PM Modi stood flanked by Putin and Xi, projecting a united front on the stage of multipolarity. The optics may have unsettled officials in the White House, but the message was clear: New Delhi is not prepared to be boxed into a choice between East and West.
For Trump, who once believed tariffs could coerce India into compliance, the spectacle was a political setback. Instead of reversing course, New Delhi chose subtle assertion through stagecraft while Trump relied on social media outbursts. His team of Peter Navarro, Scott Bessent and JD Vance may cheer this approach, but the chorus of critics in Washington is growing louder.
David Ignatius, columnist for the Washington Post and former Harvard Kennedy School fellow, described the SCO summit as a “significant setback for the United States.” Speaking to MSNBC, he said: “The image of Vladimir Putin holding hands with PM Modi was a sign that Putin is getting away with it. Three years into the war, he is now claiming it was the West’s fault and he has an audience of prominent world leaders, including a key person in America’s efforts to create a new, informal partnership to contain China. India’s repositioning toward Russia and China reverses diplomacy that’s been conducted since the administration of George W Bush, at least.”
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser and one of his fiercest critics, also called Modi’s trip to China “bad news” for the West. “There’s a lot of bad news here and very little good news… The West has spent decades, in particular, in trying to wean India away from its Cold War attachment to Soviet Union/Russia, buying sophisticated weapons from them… and cautioning India on the danger posed by China, which is symbolised by what’s called the Asian security quad with Japan, India, Australia and the United States… A lot of effort… a lot of effort to make India more amenable to cooperation with these countries,” Bolton said on television.
Bolton added that Trump’s tariff regime is a “disaster” for everyone involved. “Trump whacked India with another 25%, (but) did not tariff Russia, did not tariff China, the largest purchaser of Russian oil and gas. And then, to make it worse, when the recent escalation between Pakistan and India over a terrorist attack in Kashmir occurred… Trump took full credit for it as one of the six or seven wars that he stopped this year to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, which has made India incandescent,” he said.
Congressman Ro Khanna joined the backlash, warning that Trump’s “ego” must not be allowed to wreck a vital relationship. “It is hurting India’s exports of leather and textiles into the United States, and it’s hurting American manufacturers and our exports into India. It is also driving India towards China and towards Russia,” he said. Khanna even suggested that Trump’s resentment over PM Modi not nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize had helped sour ties.
Former US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan echoed the charge, accusing Trump of “throwing the relationship with India over the side” because of Pakistan’s willingness to engage in business deals with his family. “On a bipartisan basis, going back decades, the United States has worked to build its relationship with India, the world’s largest democracy, a country that we should be aligned with on technology and talent and economics, so many other issues, and aligned with in dealing with the strategic threat from China,” Sullivan said.
Bolton has been especially unsparing. He has called Trump’s tariffs on India an “enormous mistake” and described the President as an “aberrational president.” He recently questioned Washington’s decision to penalise India for Russian oil purchases while China faces no such sanctions, calling the policy “confused.” Bolton has warned that the bilateral relationship is now “in a very bad place” and will take considerable work to repair.
Taken together, these voices sketch a stark picture of self-inflicted damage. Trump’s tariff crusade and public boasts are alienating the very partner Washington needs most to counterbalance Moscow and Beijing, undoing years of painstaking diplomacy and sending New Delhi visibly closer to the other side.
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