External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is set to visit Moscow to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov from August 18 to 21 while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit New Delhi to meet National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. These meetings come amid US imposition of 50 per cent tariffs on India over purchase of Russian oil.
This comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming trip to China's Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which will also be attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin is also set to travel to India for an annual summit with PM Modi later this year.
Jaishankar's trip to Moscow comes days after Doval met Putin at the Kremlin in August 7. In July, Jaishankar had met Jingping to discuss bilateral ties, border issues and trade relations.
How India's high-level Russia, China meetings are aimed at Trump tariffs?
Ever since India and US inked a nuclear agreement during the era of Manmohan Singh and George W. Bush, New Delhi has been growing closer to Washington. The US even made India a key player in its Indo-Pacific strategy to counter China while India went on to reduce its dependence on Russian defence imports. But with Donald Trump imposing tariffs, now India could be mulling to bolster its age-old ties with Russia while opting for a tactical embrace with China.
India and China have been looking to improve their ties for a while now, with back-to-back meetings over border dispute and trade concerns. But the tariffs have given New Delhi enough push to speed up the need to achieve a resolution on contentious issues. It should be noted that Modi's trip to China will be the first times in seven years.
By imposing tariffs, Trump might have thought that India would give in to his demands like many other nations that have already struck trade deals with the US. However, PM Modi has shown no signs of giving in to the US demands or giving up Russian oil.