‘We need India’: Ex-US adviser on Chinese ‘threat’ after PM Modi-Xi Jinping SCO meet amid Trump tariff shock

MAry Kissel, who has served as a senior advisor to former secretarial assistant of tell Mike Pompeo, said the US cannot face China's growing work in the Indo-Pacific without India's support.Mary Kissel, speaking on the economic tensions between the two nations over sweeping tariffs on India, emphasised the necessity of a strong India-US partnership to take on Chinese threats. “If we are really serious about considering communist China, the greatest threat to the United States and our way of life, we need India. It's just a fact. We can't fight them alone in the Asia Pacific,” Kissel told Fox News in an interview."We need the heft of not just Australia, not just our friends in Japan, but also India. So, I think this meeting is highlighting a major challenge for the Trump administration," Kissel on the recently conducted 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China.On the sidelines of the SCO summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral engagements with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.Modi and Xi, during their bilateral meeting, recognised the role of India and China's economies in stabilising the global trade, according to a ministry of external affairs statement on Sunday.The two leaders of the neighbouring countries also welcomed the positive momentum and steady progress in bilateral relations since their last meeting in Kazan, held on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in October 2024.During Modi's engagement with Putin, the Indian prime minister emphasised the strong relationship between New Delhi and Moscow, stating that both nations have always stood shoulder to shoulder, even in the most challenging situations.Trump says not considering lowering tariffs on IndiaMeanwhile, Donald Trump said he is not looking at lowering tariffs on India. Trump responded “no” when asked by a reporter whether he is considering taking away some of the tariffs imposed on India.“We get along with India very well,” Trump said on Tuesday at a White House event, but criticised what he said was an imbalanced trade relationship with New Delhi because of high Indian levies.“India has, you have to understand, for many years, it was a one-sided relationship,” he said, adding, “India was charging us tremendous tariffs, about the highest in the world.”The US tariffs on India came despite months of negotiations between New Delhi and Washington and stunned officials in the Asian nation. India’s high tariffs and protectionist policies have exasperated US trade negotiators.(With inputs from agencies)