In a rare gesture, China on Thursday backed India while slamming US President Donald Trump for imposing 50 per cent tariffs on New Delhi for procuring Russian oil.
Chinese ambassador to India Xu Feihong on Thursday went on call Trump a "bully" while ensuring not mention him by name. Taking to X, the envoy posted, "Give the bully an inch, he will take a mile."
In the post, he also shared a quote by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a phone call with Brazilian president's chief advisor on August 6: "Using tariffs as a weapon to suppress other countries violates the UN Charter undermines WTO rules and is both unpopular and unsustainable".
The Chinese envoy's post backing India comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set ot travel to Tianjin city by August end for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. This will be Modi's first visit to China since the 2020 Galwan clash though the PM met his counterpart Xi Jinping during the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024.
India and China in June took steps to mend their bilateral ties and decided to negotiate trade and economical issues. Recently, the two sides agreed to take measures to resume direct air services, which have been suspended since 2020.
The renewed bonhomie between India and China comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit India later this year. "We have got a special, long relationship and we value this relationship. We have had high-level engagement and these high-level engagements have contributed very substantially. We are very excited and delighted to learn about the visit of President Putin to India. I think the dates are almost finalised now," NSA Ajit Doval said during his visit to Moscow on Thursday.
Putin's visit also assumes significance in the backdrop of Trump tariffs on Indian imports that will take effect in 21 days.
