The closer Trump and Putin get Britain, France and other Western countries which, since the end of the Second World War, have seen America as an ally, will have to rethink their policy and their alliances
By Mihir Bose
When I was a young boy growing up in India in the 50s, much was made of the India-China friendship. Chou en Lai, the Chinese Prime Minister, visited India and got a very warm welcome. However, China becoming Communist, and Mao se Tung, the Chinese leader, was not welcomed by many, particularly in the West.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister, took it upon himself to get the People’s Republic of China accepted by the world as the legitimate ruler of China. In particular, that it be allowed to take its seat in the UN. At that stage, America had refused to recognise the People’s Republic of China and still insisted on the ridiculous idea that its protégé, Chiang Kai-shek, who had lost out to Mao and fled to Taiwan, was the legitimate ruler of China. Taiwan occupied China’s permanent seat in the Security Council, which suited America as Taiwan always did America’s bidding.
Nehru urged America to follow the example of other western countries, including Britian, to recognise that Mao as the ruler of China, but America refused, hoping that Chiang Kai-shek would return and called Mao’s regime red China.
The result of all this cosying up to China was that we, the young people, would shout Hindi-Chini bhai, bhai, India and China are brothers. But all this brotherly love vanished in a puff when, in 1962, China launched a war against India, claiming India was occupying Chinese territory in the north-east of India and inflicted a terrible defeat on India. Nehru never recovered and died within two years.
We loved going to Chinese restaurants but now stopped doing so and many of them closed. It now became Hindi-China hai, hai. India and China are enemies. Since then, India’s relationship with China has remained tense. The border dispute has not been settled, and China claims even more areas as part of China including Arunachal Pradesh. There is no sign anyone in India will shout, as we did, Hindi-Chini bhai, bhai. China’s great friend in the subcontinent is Pakistan. There it is a case of Chini-Paki, bhai, bhai.
I mention all this to show how things can change in politics. But even then what is happening between Russia and America is quite extraordinary. Things have changed so dramatically that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin give the impression that they are bosom pals. Trump has said some very complimentary things about Putin. His envoy, Steve Witkoff who is described as Trump’s fixer, after a visit to Russia, where he met Putin for a couple of hours, could not stop talking about how much Putin liked Trump.
In a podcast interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, Witkoff said, “In the second visit I had, it got personal. President Putin had commissioned a beautiful portrait of President Trump from the leading Russian artist and actually gave it to me and asked me to take it home to President Trump, which I brought home and delivered. It was such a gracious moment.”
Witkoff also said in the interview that Putin prayed for Trump after the U.S. president was targeted in an assassination attempt last year on the campaign trail. “When the president was shot, he [Putin] went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president,” Witkoff said, adding, “He was praying for his friend.”
Nothing could better express that now what we have is Trump-Putin bhai, bhai, Trump and Putin are brothers. This represents the greatest change in American policy since the second world war. During the war the Americans did have an alliance with the Soviet Union, as it then was, with American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt confident he would work with Joseph Stalin, the Russian dictator. But that proved a false hope and as the cold war developed America saw Russia as an enemy that if it could not be crushed, should, at least, be put in a position where it could never threaten America.
Indeed, in the 60s, as the relationship between the Soviet Union and China frayed, and the two communist powers grew further apart, America cosied up to China in the hope of isolating Russia and putting pressure on Russia. Americans can claim that policy worked as the Soviet Union collapsed, although this was largely because the communist economic model proved a huge failure. While China recognised that, went capitalist but the Chinese party kept control, the Soviet Union trying to go capitalist saw the communist party lose power and the Soviet Union itself collapsed.
The American having declared victory then hoped that the new Russia, following the American capitalist model would become an American friend, if not ally. However, that did not work. And it seemed even more unlikely after Russia invaded Ukraine. Joe Biden did not want to do anything with Putin and never put through a call. Trump has changed all that and made much of his conversations with Putin.
Now, he sees China as the enemy. While his policy of imposing tariffs will affect all countries it is China he is aiming at. And what better policy to follow then get close to Russia and form an alliance that will threaten China.
It interesting that Putin has not said anything about Trump’s desire to annex Greenland. If anything, his attitude seems to be that would not be a bad thing.
This course of action does mean that America’s relationship with the western European countries, all part of Nato, is now under threat. These countries all see Putin as an enemy. There is no question of a British envoy visiting Putin and returning with a portrait of Keir Starmer.
The closer Trump and Putin get Britain, France and other Western countries which, since the end of the Second World War, have seen America as an ally, will have to rethink their policy and their alliances. That will not be easy.
The only thing is that Trump changes policy quickly. And who is to say the Trump-Putin bhai bhai could not soon become Trump-Putin hai hai. Starmer and other western leaders must hope that this will happen and happen soon.
Mihir Bose is the author of Thank You Mr Crombie, Lessons in Guilt and Gratitude to the British.
