Looks like we have lost India and Russia to 'deepest, darkest China': Donald Trump rues

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday was back to his usual musing over India, China and Russia. Trump 'rued' that India and Russia appear to have been 'lost' to China, following the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Beijing this week where their leaders stood alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!" Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

This comes days after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent, including a 25 per cent additional duties for India's purchase of Russian crude oil, he said. The additional tariff has already come into effect from August 27.

India has described the US action as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable" and even wondered why it has been singled out for the punitive action.

But the US has not imposed any punitive measures on 'deepest, darkest' China, despite the Xi Jinping-led nation being the largest importer of Russian crude oil, a fact India's External Affairs Minister also pointed out in Moscow a few days earlier.