With tensions growing between India and China in eastern Ladakh, US President Donald Trump on Friday offered to help by mediating between the two countries as he said the situation between the two Asian neighbours had turned very nasty.

Trump said the United States would love to get involved and defuse tensions, and were already in talks with both sides. The US President had made similar remarks during the Galwan Valley standoff and had also made a similar pitch to mediate between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue. The Ministry of External Affairs had earlier said, on Trump’s offer of mediation with Pakistan, that the issue will be dealt with mutually. Trump had made the offer thrice in this connection.

Speaking to reporters in Washington DC, Trump said he hopes China is not bullying India but admitted that Beijing was going more strongly at it than many even understand.

Trump recalled the bonhomie he shared with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an attempt to convince Indian Americans that he was their best bet in the US presidential race even though the Democrats had chosen Indian-origin American Kamala Harris for the vice-president ticket. Trump spoke of the Howdy Modi event in Houston Texas where Modi had said “Abki Baar Trump Sarkar”, an echo of his 2014 campaign slogan.

The US President spoke fondly of his last visit to India in February when he addressed a large gathering in Ahmedabad before the Covid-19 outbreak forced a nationwide lockdown.  He said the people of India liked him and America and supported them, underlining the fact that Indian Americans too would vote for him in the US elections due in November this year.

Read Also: Trump praises PM Modi, offers to mediate in India-China standoff

Trump maintained that China is to be primarily blamed for the coronavirus outbreak. He said all 188 countries in the world have been affected in one way or the other due to the Chinese virus.

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