The impact of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin did not fade even after its conclusion. The sight of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin sharing the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately drew sharp reactions from the American political circles.

On September 1, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro launched a scathing criticism of India’s participation. He remarked, “It was a shame to see Modi getting in bed, as a leader of the biggest democracy in the world, with the two biggest authoritarians in the world in Putin and Xi Jinping. That doesn’t make any sense. I’m not sure what he’s thinking particularly since India has been in a cold war, and sometimes a hot war, with China for decades. We hope the Indian leader comes around to seeing that he needs to be with the US, Europe as well as Ukraine and not Russia.”

Navarro’s outburst was another reminder of Washington’s double standards. While the United States criticises New Delhi for engaging with Moscow and Beijing, President Donald Trump himself held a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska only last month. Despite the strong claims made by Trump, the meeting yielded no significant results, exposing the gap between rhetoric and reality【source: Reuters – Trump-Putin Alaska meeting】.

The trade czar has repeatedly targeted India over its continuing oil trade with Russia, especially after Trump shocked New Delhi with a 50% tariff announcement. Navarro has not hesitated to make provocative statements, going so far as to suggest that the revenue from these oil purchases was financing the war in Ukraine. He even claimed that Brahmins were unfairly benefitting at the cost of ordinary Indian citizens. In one of his most extreme assertions, Navarro described the Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war.” He also went on to call India the “Maharaja of tariffs”, insisting that New Delhi was unwilling to admit that its tariff rates are among the highest in major economies.

Adding to the chorus, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to downplay the developments in Tianjin. He dismissed the summit by saying, “This is a longstanding meeting, it’s called the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and I think it’s largely performative. I think at the end of the day, India is the most populous democracy in the world. Their values are much closer to ours and to China’s than to Russia’s.” He had also alleged earlier that “wealthy Indian families” were using the opportunity to make profits from Russian oil imports.

The Trump administration has not stopped at official remarks. It has borrowed language used by the Indian opposition to criticise Modi. References to the Adani-Ambani nexus made by Rahul Gandhi, as well as caste-related political narratives, have been echoed in American statements, all to mount pressure on India over Russian oil purchases【source: The Hindu – US criticism of India’s Russian oil trade】.

Washington has even introduced an additional 25% tariff on India’s procurement of Russian oil, a burden that New Delhi continues to resist. Ironically, the United States has not only exempted China from any such tariffs on its Russian oil imports but has also defended this imbalance. This double standard has only pushed India to stand firm, a stance that has left American officials visibly frustrated and driven to more angry outbursts.