Amid tariff wars and reckless boasts, New Delhi snubs Washington’s pressure tactics
The Modi government has made it plain that it will not bend its dignity at the sound of Donald Trump’s telephone. Reports from Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung note that the American president tried at least four times in recent weeks to secure a call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi—each attempt was ignored. The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi confirmed only one call on June 17, and even that, it seems, was granted more as a courtesy than as a concession.
Why this silence? Because India has learned the hard way that Donald Trump talks first, thinks later, and lies always. His self-congratulatory outbursts—whether declaring himself the architect of ceasefires or claiming phantom trade victories—are not the stuff of diplomacy but of delusion. Modi, having once endured the humiliation of Trump taking public credit for India’s own unilateral ceasefire, is in no mood to be played again.
Trump has wielded tariffs against India with the grace of a sledgehammer—slapping on 25 percent and then doubling them to 50 percent, the highest imposed on any U.S. trading partner outside Brazil. His calculation was that India, like Europe, would capitulate to American pressure. Instead, New Delhi has turned eastward, toward Beijing, not out of love but out of necessity. As one analyst put it, America’s Indo-Pacific strategy “is collapsing,” because India never intended to become a U.S. vassal against China in the first place.
The anger in New Delhi is real: Trump hosted Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, at the White House even as he threatened India with tariffs, and then boasted of oil schemes with Pakistan that would leave India dependent on its sworn rival. And the caution is equally real: Modi knows that a single phone call with Trump can be instantly twisted into a White House “victory” press release. Better no call than another farce.
Trump, desperate for a Nobel-style photo-op, even floated the idea of staging a handshake moment with Modi and Munir, in a cheap imitation of Oslo 1993. Modi declined. He also declined Trump’s White House invitation while in Canada for the G7, and it is highly probable he will avoid him again at the United Nations next month.
For Trump, every negotiation is a circus with himself as ringmaster. For India, survival means not being dragged into the tent. Modi’s refusal to take the call is not just pique; it is policy. India will not have its hand forced by a man who confuses bullying with statecraft.
August 26, 2025
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