KARACHI: US President Donald Trump no longer plans to travel to India for the Quad summit later this year, reports the New York Times, quoting sources privy to the American president’s schedule.
According to the Times, the shift followed a tense June 17 phone call in which Trump boasted that he had “solved” the conflict between India and Pakistan and suggested Modi nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. “The not-so-subtle implication, according to people familiar with the call, was that Mr Modi should do the same”, says the paper.
Modi pushed back, telling Trump that “US involvement had nothing to do with the recent ceasefire” and insisting that it was settled directly between India and Pakistan.
The fallout from that conversation has been profound. Just weeks later, Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports, then doubled it by penalising India for buying Russian oil. The Times notes that the 50 per cent tariff was so crushing that one Indian official described it as “gundagardi: straight-up bullying, or thuggery”.
The rupture has spilled into the public arena. In Maharashtra, protesters paraded a giant effigy of Trump with signs branding him a “backstabber”. Modi, who once called Trump “a true friend”, has not spoken with the US president since the June call.
According to analysts mentioned in the Times, Modi could not afford to acknowledge any American role in mediating with Pakistan. “The idea that Modi would accept a cease-fire under US pressure or that he needed or sought mediation -- it doesn’t just go against his personality”, said Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution. “It goes against Indian diplomatic practice”.
While the White House insists the two leaders “remain in close communication”, the New York Times reports that Indian officials are increasingly wary, fearing Trump might misrepresent their conversations on social media. Modi, meanwhile, is preparing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the SCO, signaling a possible turn towards closer ties with Beijing and Moscow.