Washington: US President Donald Trump has said that he has spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is not in a ‘good mood’ over the ‘big conflict’ border row conflict between India and China. He made the comments while interacting with journalists in the Oval Office of the White House.
“They like me in India. They like me in India more than the media likes me in this country. And, I like Modi. I like your prime minister a lot. He is a great gentleman,” Trump Modi said.
“They have a big conflict …India and China. Two countries with 1.4 billion people (each). Two countries with very powerful armies. India is not happy and probably China is not happy,” the US president said. He was asked if he was worried about the border situation between India and China.
“I can tell you; I did speak to Prime Minister Modi. He is not in a good mood about what is going on with China,” Trump added.
A day earlier, the president offered to mediate between India and China. Trump said Wednesday in a tweet that he was ‘ready, willing and able to mediate’ between the two countries.
Responding to a question on his tweet, Trump reiterated his offer. “I would do that (mediate). If they thought it would help about ‘mediate or arbitrate’, I would do that,” asserted Trump.
India said Thursday it was engaged with China to peacefully resolve the border row, in a carefully crafted reaction to Trump’s offer to arbitrate between the two Asian giants to settle their decades-old dispute.
“We are engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve it,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said.
While the Chinese Foreign Ministry is yet to react to Trump’s tweet which appears to have caught Beijing by surprise, an op-ed in the state-run ‘Global Times’ said both countries did not need such help from the US president.
“The latest dispute can be solved bilaterally by China and India. The two countries should keep alert on the US, which exploits every chance to create waves that jeopardise regional peace and order,” it said.
Trump said he enjoys a good relationship with Modi. He is one of the few world leaders, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, with whom President Trump enjoys a close friendly relationship.
They talk with one another frequently, and their conversations normally do not appear in the public domain.
PTI