Donald Trump Says It’s ‘Getting Late’ In A Message To India After Modi-Putin-Xi Meet At SCO

Tianjin: As world leaders gathered in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping projected a show of global power, U.S. President Donald Trump chose to lash out at India over trade. His comments, made on Monday, stood in stark contrast to the cooperative tone on display among Asian powers and carried undertones of irritation at Washington being edged out of the spotlight. 

Trump alleged that India’s trade policies had long disadvantaged the U.S., calling the equation a “one-sided disaster.” He further claimed that India had now offered to slash tariffs on American goods to “nothing,” though he complained that the move was “getting late.”

Trump posted on Truth Social, “What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us… The reason is that India has charged us, until now, such high tariffs… that our businesses are unable to sell into India. It has been a totally one-sided disaster!”

The comments came against the backdrop of heightened friction between the US and India on multiple economic fronts. Just a week earlier, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had drawn attention to the sluggish progress of trade negotiations, which had commenced as early as April. He pointed not only to the delays in those discussions but also to India’s continued crude oil purchases from Russia as major reasons behind the stiff “penalty” tariffs imposed by the U.S.

Trump sharpened his line of attack, noting India’s preference for Russia as its supplier of energy and defense equipment said, “He noted that India buys ‘most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the US’, referring again to a factor (particularly crude oil) that he has cited for the 25% ‘penalty’ part of the total 50% tariffs imposed on most Indian products.”

Reiterating his grievance, Trump claimed, “They (India) have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago,” framing his criticism as “some simple facts for people to ponder.”

The Modi government, however, has consistently questioned the U.S. justification for the sweeping 50% tariffs, maintaining that the measures are neither reasonable nor in keeping with trade norms. Washington, meanwhile, has continued to apply pressure by highlighting figures and delivering public rebukes, while India has pushed back against what it perceives as unfair economic coercion.