New Delhi: In his first direct response in over two months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (September 6) said India and the US share a “very positive and forward-looking” global strategic partnership, shortly after US President Donald Trump described him as a “friend” and said the two countries had a “special relationship”.Trump had told reporters on Friday that he will “always be friends” with Modi.“I’ll always be friends with (Narendra) Modi… He’s a great Prime Minister. He’s great. But I just don’t like what he’s doing at this particular moment. But India and the United States have a special relationship. There’s nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion,” Trump said in the Oval Office.Notably, Trump’s latest statement came just hours after he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social that it looks like the US “has lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China”.Reacting to the US president’s latest remarks, Modi said that he deeply appreciates Trump’s positive assessment of India-US relations.“Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump’s sentiments and positive assessment of our ties. India and the US have a very positive and forward-looking Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership,” Modi posted on X on Saturday.Although he conveyed his response through social media – even though Trump had not directly tagged him – the last time Modi had spoken to the US president was over the phone in June this year.During that call, Modi told Trump that India and Pakistan had ended their hostilities through their own efforts, rather than because of US mediation.Trump, however, has continued to insist that he was responsible for bringing the two nuclear powers to a halt, counting it among the “seven wars” he claims to have ended.In fact, at the same Friday press conference, he once again referred to this “seven wars” claim.While Trump has previously too described Modi as a “friend”, it has not stopped his administration from imposing 50% tariffs on Indian exports to the US, a move that has come as a severe jolt for Indian trade interests.Excerpts of Trump’s answers to queries of reporters at the Oval office:Reporter: Who do you blame for losing India to China in your post earlier?Trump: I don’t think we have. You know, I’ve been very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil, as you know, from Russia. And I’d let them know that. We put a very big tariff on India, 50% tariff, very high tariff. I get along very well with Modi, as you know. He was here a couple of months ago. In fact, we went to the Rose Garden and the grass was so soaking wet. It was such a terrible place to have a news conference. I said, well, let’s use a beautiful white stone, emblematic of the White House. And it’s been very well received. But we had a news conference on the grass. It was my last news conference I had on the grass because everybody sunk in. You probably sunk in. Every reporter out there, they ruined their shoes. We made that change. It’s been a really well-received change. Reporter: Are you ready to reset relations with India at this point?Trump: I’ll always be friends with Modi. He’s great. Prime Minister. He’s great. I’ll always be friends, but I just don’t like what he’s doing at this particular moment. But India and the United States have a special relationship. There’s nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion.Reporter: How are trade talks going with India and with other countries that you haven’t reached a trade deal with?Trump: They’re going great. Other countries are doing great. We’re doing great with all of them. We’re upset with the European Union because of what’s happening with not just Google, but with all of our big companies. They just, you know, hit him with unbelievable fines. It was $17 billion and $14 billion. And they use that money to run Europe. It’s almost become common. It’s almost become a yearly occurrence like it’s a tax. And so it’s very unfair.In his remarks, Trump made no mention of reducing tariffs on India. Instead, he said he would “always be friends (Modi), but I just don’t like what he’s doing at this particular moment.”Amid this backdrop of tariff pressure and Trump’s criticism on social media this week, India again appeared to signal caution.Within a week of images showing Prime Minister Modi in a huddle with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping being circulated worldwide, the Ministry of External Affairs announced on Friday that Modi would not attend a virtual BRICS summit convened by Brazil.The meeting was aimed at finding common ground on multilateralism and addressing U.S. tariffs. The decision appeared designed to balance India’s position and avoid further provoking Trump, who has long harboured antipathy toward BRICS.Trump had earlier imposed a 25 percent India-specific “reciprocal” tariff, significantly higher than those levied on competitors such as Vietnam and Sri Lanka. On August 27, this was doubled to 50 percent as punishment for India’s purchase of Russian oil, singling out New Delhi while leaving other energy buyers, including China and the EU, untouched.The US President has yet to fully remove tariffs on any country, even after trade agreements, preferring only to reduce them. For India, even if a trade deal leads to lower reciprocal duties, the additional tariff linked to Russian oil purchases would remain an obstacle.On Thursday (September 4), the Trump administration petitioned the US Supreme Court to uphold its global tariffs after a federal appeals court ruled that the President could not rely on a 1977 law meant for national emergencies. The administration’s appeal specifically noted that Trump had authorised tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) against India “to deal with a preexisting national emergency regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine, as a crucial aspect of his push for peace in that war-torn country.”It is therefore unlikely that Trump will remove the IEEPA tariffs while the case is pending before the Supreme Court, as his administration is using them as part of its legal justification.The US tariffs will impact over 66 percent of India’s $86.5 billion exports, with the labour intensive sectors like textiles, carpets, furniture, shrimp and gems and jewellery already facing spectres of bankruptcy. According to Delhi-based think tank, Global Trade Research Initiative, Indian exports would like reduce from from $86.5 billion in FY2025 to about $49.6 billion in FY2026.‘A strategic shock that threatens India’s long-standing foothold in U.S. labour-intensive markets’“This is a strategic shock that threatens India’s long-standing foothold in U.S. labour-intensive markets, risks mass unemployment in export hubs, and could weaken India’s participation in global value chains. Competitors like China, Vietnam, Mexico, Turkey, and even Pakistan, Nepal, Guatemala, and Kenya stand to gain, potentially locking India out of key markets even after tariffs are rolled back,” said the GTRI report.Shortly after Modi’s tweet on Saturday morning, external affairs minister S Jaishankar told news agency ANI that the Indian PM “obviously attaches enormous importance to our partnership with the United States”.“Where President Trump is concerned, he (PM Modi) has always had a very good personal equation with President Trump. But the point is that we remain engaged with the United States, and at this time, I can’t say more than that. But that’s really what I would say,” Jaishankar added.While Jaishankar claimed that that channels were always open, the signs just a half a day earlier from Washington had not indicated that Trump officials were listening to New Delhi.Trump’s social media post suggesting that India had been “lost” to China came five days after the SCO summit. Almost on cue, a top Trump cabinet member intensified the rhetoric in Washington on Friday morning.In an interview with Bloomberg, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he expected India to “say sorry” and resume trade talks with the U.S. within one or two months. He added that New Delhi needed to “decide which side they want to be on.”Another critic in Washington of India’s purchases of Russian oil is senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro, who over the last two weeks has repeated his charge that New Delhi is functioning as a “laundromat for the Kremlin” and even went to the extent of calling the Ukraine war “Modi’s war”.