Humbled Modi Reaches Out to China After Trump Turns Hostile

[Riaz Haq]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to be shedding his Hindutva arrogance. He is reaching out to China after President Donald Trump and several top US administration officials have openly and repeatedly targeted India for harsh criticism over the purchase of Russian oil. Top American officials have accused India, particularly the billionaire friends of Mr. Modi, of “profiteering” from the Russian oil trade. While welcoming India’s outreach, the Chinese have indicated they expect New Delhi to stop covert aid to militant groups attacking Chinese interests in Pakistan. Meanwhile, Chinese Ambassador Xu Feihong in New Delhi recently told his Indian audiences that “Pakistan is a victim of terrorism”. Also, the United States has recently labeled the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and its affiliated the Majeed Brigade as “international terrorists”. Majeed Brigade claimed responsibility for hijacking of the Jaffar Express train in Balochistan and murdering 31 people in cold blood in March this year. The Chinese have reached out to the Afghan Taliban leadership to get them to stop the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and related terrorist groups like ISIS-K from launching cross-border attacks in Pakistan which kill Chinese and Pakistani citizens and impact Chinese projects. The US has also praised the Pakistani government as a “phenomenal partner” in combatting international terrorism. 

There is significant evidence of Indian intelligence agencies’ involvement in terrorist attacks on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects funded by the Chinese government. Indian covert operative Kulbhushan Jhadav, now in Pakistani custody, has detailed his role in carrying out such attacks. In “My Enemy’s Enemy”, Indian investigative journalist Avinash Paliwal has described at some length the connections between the Indian government agents and the Afghan and Baloch militants targeting the Pakistani state and various development projects undertaken under the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Paliwal talks of the presence of Afghan and Baloch exiles in New Delhi where the Indian intelligence services recruit "human assets" to use against Pakistan. He says he has conducted interviews about Indian support for the TTP (Pakistani Taliban) on the ground in Afghanistan “whose details can not be divulged”. 

In recent years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has also been accused of ordering targeted assassinations of dissidents in multiple countries, including Canada, the US and Pakistan. Reacting to the report of Canadian allegations against the Indian government, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Syrus Qazi said: “We are aware of the nature of our eastern neighbor, we know what they are capable of … so it is not a surprise for us. “We caught [one of their] serving naval intelligence officers on our soil. He (Kulbhushan Jadhav) is in our custody and admitted that he came here to create instability and spread evil,” he added. 

Modi has a long history of murdering minorities in his country. After the Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002, Narendra Modi made the cover of India Today magazine with the caption "Hero of Hatred". Modi was denied a visa to visit the United States.  The US visa ban on Modi was lifted in 2014 after he became prime minister. Since then,  Narendra Modi's image has been rehabilitated by the West as the US and Western Europe seek allies in Asia to counter the rise of China.  However, Modi's actions on the ground in India confirm that he remains "Hero of Hatred" and "Divider In Chief" at his core.  A two-part BBC documentary explains this reality in significant detail. The first part focuses on the 2002 events in Gujarat when Modi as the state chief minister ordered the police to not stop the Hindu mobs murdering Muslims and burning their homes and businesses.  The second part looks at Modi government's anti-Muslim policies, including the revocation of Kashmir's autonomy (article 370) and a new citizenship law (CAA 2019) that discriminates against Muslims. It shows the violent response by security forces to peaceful protests against the new laws, and interviews the family members of people who were killed in the 2020 Delhi riots orchestrated by Modi's allies. 

Here's Indian National Security Advisor on how to use Taliban to attack Pakistan:

https://youtu.be/eYRuk8H5M9E?si=ZB1c7Dd8ntQdKeFi

http://www.youtube.com/embed/eYRuk8H5M9E?si=kioJoC8X-6nHSzSV"; title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>" height="315" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/widget_object.png" width="560" style="cursor: move; background-color: #b2b2b2;" /> 

 Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Karan Thapar Dismantles Official Indian Narrative on Kulbhushan Jadhav

How Long Can Modi Escape Accountability For Murder? 

Modi-Trump Bromance Over

US Government Brackets Modi With Murderous Dictators

Ex India Spy Documents Successful RAW Ops in Pakistan

London Police Document Confirms MQM-RAW Connection Testimony

India's Ex Spooks Blame Kulbhushan Jadhav For Getting Caught

Ajit Doval Lecture on "How to Tackle Pakistan" 

Mohan Lal Bhaskar: An Indian Raw Agent in Pakistan

Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel

 

PakAlumni Social Network

[Riaz Haq]

Congress Kerala
@INCKerala
Our trade with China:

Exports: $14.25B
Imports: $113.5B
Deficit: $99.25B

Our trade with Russia:

Exports: $4.88B
Imports: $67.15B
Deficit: $62.27B

Our trade with US:

Exports: $86.50B
Imports: $38.99B
Surplus: $47.51B

What this news tells us that even after 11 years and Modi meeting Xi Jinping more than 20 times, we still don't have access to Chinese market. We are running nearly half of our deficit with China. The recent visit means that China will have more unbridled access to the Indian market.

And Modi-Trump ego clash is killing our US market access too. Where are we really headed? What will our farmers do? What will our industries do?

https://x.com/INCKerala/status/1964175320342528441

[Riaz Haq]

Sushant Singh
@SushantSin
G-2 is India's longstanding nightmare and to see it coming from Trump must be very painful for Modi, his self-proclaimed good friend.

https://x.com/SushantSin/status/1984097505009692956

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Trump-Xi bonhomie and reference to G-2 may impact India and Quad
Premium
External Affairs Ministry non-committal on outcome of U.S.-China summit in South Korea; experts warn of ripple effects in region; as a result of the talks, the U.S. has reduced tariffs on China to 47%, making India (and Brazil) at 50%, the highest tariffed country

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/trump-xi-bonhomie-reference-...


The summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea ended with several outcomes for bilateral ties between the two countries, but also sent ripple effects to India. As a result of the talks, the U.S. has reduced tariffs on China to 47%, making India (and Brazil) at 50%, the highest tariffed country. More than the specific outcomes, including a one-year truce on trade tariffs and export restrictions on rare earth minerals, however, experts said the characterisation by both leaders of the U.S.-China “G-2” or grouping of the two biggest global powers, may have the bigger impact, especially for the region.

[Riaz Haq]

Will Modi Cozy Up to Putin?
Next week, the Russian leader visits New Delhi for the first time since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine

By Sumit Ganguly

https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/25/modi-putin-meeting-india-russi...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit India on Dec. 5 for the countries’ 23rd annual bilateral summit. The trip, Putin’s first to New Delhi since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, is taking place at a particularly fraught time; India has expended considerable diplomatic capital as his arrival looms.

To that end, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Moscow this month, meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a convening of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation heads of delegation. In August, Jaishankar and Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval also undertook back-to-back visits to Moscow.

India and Russia are turning to each other because of their current difficulties with the United States since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office. Putin’s Alaska summit with Trump in August yielded little of tangible value. Since that meeting, the Trump administration has continued supplying limited weaponry to Ukraine, albeit via NATO allies. This month, the United States also approved upgrades to the Patriot missiles that it had previously provided Ukraine.

Though Trump has not adopted former U.S. President Joe Biden’s unyielding stance toward Russia’s war in Ukraine—and recently announced a peace plan that, if adopted, would involve significant concessions on Ukraine’s part—Moscow has nevertheless been unhappy with Washington due to its fitful support for Kyiv.

India, the beneficiary of a few decades of bipartisan consensus in the United States, has in recent months found itself at odds with the Trump administration—ostensibly mostly because New Delhi has been purchasing substantial amounts of Russian oil.

However, many U.S.-India analysts attribute the downturn in the relationship to Trump’s pique over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s failure to acknowledge his putative role in ending the brief but intense India-Pakistan military skirmish in May; it didn’t help when Modi reportedly refused to take at least four phone calls from Trump after the crisis ended. Soon afterward, Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on a range of Indian goods, and bilateral relations plummeted.

Given this precipitous decline, it is not entirely surprising that India is seemingly open to rejuvenating its partnership with Russia. A range of reports suggest that next week’s summit will be consequential. Several deals are under discussion, among them sales of the fifth-generation Russian fighter jet, the Sukhoi-57; more transfers of the S-500 missile system and the possible manufacture of those missile batteries in India; and the creation of a maritime corridor linking Chennai, India, to Vladivostok, Russia.

Though it would be premature to conclude that all of these agreements will be realized, it’s likely that a few of them will come to fruition. And apart from these mutually beneficial deals, Putin’s visit sends a clear signal on the part of both New Delhi and Moscow that they each have powerful friends. It suggests that India can still count on various forms of Russian support, including access to sophisticated weaponry. Russia, in turn, can demonstrate that despite its estrangement with much of the Western world, it enjoys a cordial relationship with an emerging power.

That message will no doubt register in Washington, but how Trump chooses to respond to this renewed warmth in India-Russia ties remains uncertain. Regardless, New Delhi is taking a gamble with the summit.

After all, Putin’s interest in India is mostly instrumental. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly expressed misgivings about India’s participation in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. It is reasonable to assume that Russia is dangling a series of defense deals and other commercial ventures with India to widen the rift that has emerged in U.S.-India relations.

[Riaz Haq]

Will Modi Cozy Up to Putin?
Next week, the Russian leader visits New Delhi for the first time since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine

By Sumit Ganguly

https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/25/modi-putin-meeting-india-russi...

India may be trying to signal to the United States that it is not bereft of other partners, especially as Trump has allowed its troublesome neighbor Pakistan into his good graces. But such an approach from New Delhi, though understandable, has pitfalls. Indian policymakers are no doubt aware that Russia hasn’t always been the most reliable partner.

Russian defense supplies have hardly been smooth. One of India’s most expensive defense acquisitions from Russia—the refurbished Soviet-era aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov—not only saw delays but also involved significant cost overruns. More recently, Russia has been unable to meet arms transfer commitments to India due to the demands on its defense industrial base amid war. So, even though Putin may come to New Delhi with promises of much-needed advanced weaponry, his ability to make good on them is in question.

Nor for that matter is Russia a reliable and consistent diplomatic partner. Because of its growing estrangement with the Western world, Russia is increasingly dependent on China, India’s long-term adversary (a status that, despite recent bonhomie, is unlikely to change). During much of the Cold War and beyond, New Delhi relied on Moscow to serve as a strategic bulwark against Beijing. Now, Russia can no longer be counted on to come to India’s assistance in the event of renewed tensions with China.

Furthermore, India needs to recognize that it is placing its bets on a declining power. Russia’s economy is currently smaller than that of the United Kingdom or even Italy. Its war in Ukraine is financially bleeding the country with no end in sight.

Most importantly, Putin sees this relationship as transactional. The foundations of the India-Russia relationship—despite a degree of Cold War nostalgia among some members of the Indian foreign-policy elite—are not on firm ground. What Putin’s upcoming visit to New Delhi exemplifies is little more than a fleeting convergence of interests.

Trump’s mercurial proclivities, especially in his second term, are now well known. It is also evident that he has allowed his personal whims to damage the carefully constructed U.S. strategic partnership with India. But turning its back on Washington at this moment won’t serve New Delhi’s long-term interests, and cozying up to Moscow won’t fix its diplomatic woes.