Alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was an honored guest at China‘s military parade in Beijing on Wednesday. Modi used his China visit to signal his discontent with President Donald Trump.
Modi pledged new cooperation with China and held a lengthy and apparently constructive conversation with Putin in his presidential limousine (likely to mitigate Chinese surveillance and because Putin wanted to signal strength to Trump in light of the U.S. president’s recent Alaska summit, during which he hosted Putin in his own limousine). Modi broadcast his anger at Trump’s recently imposed 25% tariffs on India. Trump imposed the tariffs because of India’s Russian oil purchases. Alongside a separate U.S. 25% tariff levy, a significant majority of Indian goods exported into the United States are now tariffed at 50% rates. Relations between New Delhi and Washington, D.C., are at their lowest point in decades.
