Russian president Vladimir Putin (AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday strongly criticised US counterpart Donald Trump for using tariffs as a bargaining tool with China and India in the current geopolitical landscape.Putin said both Beijing and New Delhi have their “own domestic political mechanism and laws” and noted that the two nations have endured difficult periods in their history, marked by colonialism and repeated attacks on sovereignty.”When somebody [Donald Trump] tells you that they are going to punish you…you have to think about the leadership of those big countries,” Putin said.”You have countries like India with 1.5 billion people, and China, both with powerful economies. They also have their own domestic political mechanism and laws. When somebody tells you that they are going to punish you…you have to think about the leadership of those big countries, which had a difficult period of their history too…that had to deal with colonialism, attacks on their sovereignty during prolonged periods of time,” the Russian President said at a press briefing.He futher said: “You have to understand that if one of them shows weakness, his political career will be over, which influences his behaviour”. Putin, however, expressed hope that everything will ultimately be sorted out for the normal political dialogue to begin. “Just as the colonial era is over, they have to realise that they [the US] cannot use this term when speaking with partners. But ultimately, things will be sorted out, and we will have normal political dialogue again,” he said.Last week, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China’s Tianjin, leaders from India, China, and Russia projected an image of warmth and strategic convergence that rattled Washington. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Russia a “special and privileged partner”. Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that “the world’s two most populous countries need to be friends.” And Russian President Vladimir Putin clasped PM Modi’s hand, addressed him as “dear friend,” and whisked him away in his armoured Aurus limousine. The optics told a story of deepening chemistry: Xi and PM Modi smiling together after years of tension, PM Modi leaning into Moscow even as Trump slapped tariffs on Indian goods, and Putin positioning himself as the indispensable broker of this triangular courtship.The move was subtle but seismic. While Trump met Putin in Alaska on August 15 to persuade him to drift from China’s orbit, Beijing welcomed PM Modi just two weeks later. On August 30, Modi was in Beijing. The next day, he stood smiling next to Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the SCO summit in Tianjin – a public relations coup for Beijing and Moscow.On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a pointed remark seen as a veiled dig at Trump, said: “India had achieved a 7.8 per cent GDP growth despite “challenges created by economic selfishness”.Earlier, in support of India, Chinese ambassador Xu Feihong wrote: “Give the bully an inch, he will take a mile”.Feihong said this a day after Trump slapped an additional 25 per cent tariff on India for its trade with Russia. The remark was seen by some as expressing solidarity with countries like India and Brazil, at the receiving end of Trump’s trade war. Xu’s post also tagged Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s remarks, after his talks with the Brazilian president’s chief advisor Celso Amorim, that using tariffs as a weapon to suppress other countries violates the UN Charter, undermines WTO rules and is both unpopular and unsustainable.
