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Xi-Trump Summit: US-China G2 Rapprochement to Avoid Thucydides Trap
The summit meeting of the leaders of China and the United States in Washington appears to signal a rapprochement between the two superpowers. President Trump has repeatedly referred to what he calls "G2", without mentioning "G7" or "G20", the groups that include many more countries. This development is seen as positive for world peace but it diminishes India's significance as a "counterweight to China" and the benefits Indians expected to flow from the US-China confrontation in Asia.
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| President Trump Personally Welcomed President Xi at Andrews Air Force Base |
The fact that President Trump personally received President Xi at Andrews Air Force Base upon his arrival is yet another indication that the US now recognizes China as a peer competitor. President Xi, for his part, has talked about the need for the two superpowers to avoid the "Thucydides Trap", a reference to the potential for war between an established superpower and a rising superpower.
Top American officials have been preparing for this moment for several years. In an interview on Fox News, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Brian Kilmeade in 2025 that “China is going to be a rich and powerful country. No matter what we do, that’s what – we’re going to have to deal with that. But we have to deal with the reality. What we cannot have is a world where China is so powerful, we depend on them. And that’s right now where we’re headed, unfortunately. That’s going to change. That’s going to change under President Trump”.
Anthony Blinken who preceded Secretary Rubio made a similar acknowledgement earlier in 2022: “China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it,”
"One of the most complex and arguably most important relationships we have is the one with China. There are aspects of contestation, there are aspects of cooperation, and we want to avoid conflict. They're a lot bigger than we are, their market's a lot bigger, their manufacturing is three times ours, they've got more ships, they put forward more papers and more patents. As strong and as powerful as we are, playing one-on-one can be tough", Blinken added later in 2023.
The Beijing-Washington rapprochement is clearly in Pakistan's interest. Islamabad has long sought to balance its foreign policy between China and the United States through a pragmatic hedging strategy, gaining economic, military, and diplomatic benefits from both superpowers while maintaining strategic autonomy. But the relationship between Pakistan and China is not the same as the one between Pakistan and the United States. Pakistan's ties with China are strategic while those with the United States remain tactical and transactional. What has changed recently is that Pakistan is no longer waging war to help the United States as it did during the "Cold War" and the "War on Terror". Instead, Pakistan has emerged as a peacemaker between the US and Iran.
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Comment by Riaz Haq yesterday
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India's 'unsettled relations' with US a headwind for economy, adviser says | ReutersNEW DELHI, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The Indian economy is facing near-term headwinds from "unsettled relations" with the United States, global energy prices, and the absence of "AI play" in the country, the country's chief economic adviser said on Friday.
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Kushagra 🇮🇳
@KushagraSaxena_
India's former Ambassador to the United States has just demolished the Modi government's biggest foreign policy myth.
Mr Navtej Sarna who represented India in Washington & London, writes in The Week that the India-US relationship has cratered significantly & that in America's eyes, India is not the strategic partner we believed we were.
Read that again. This is not the opposition. This is one of India's most senior diplomats.
Here is what 20 months of Modi-Trump friendship has produced -
🔹A US sanctions law threatening India with 100% tariffs for buying Russian oil
🔹India clubbed with just four other countries for punishment
🔹Votes against India cutting across party lines, including from the Congressional India caucus
🔹Even an Indian American congressman voted in favour
🔹US senator publicly told India - Clean up your act
🔹A bipartisan consensus built over 25 years has now cracked
& what was the government's strategy? Mr Sarna spells it out -
🔹Begging for investment in the US
🔹Ego massages for Trump AND his family
🔹Fawning over his envoys
His verdict - it has NOT worked.
PM who shouted Ab ki baar Trump sarkar in Houston owes the nation an answer:
🔹Where is the strategic partnership you sold to India?
🔹What did years of hugs and stadium rallies actually get us?
🔹Why is India being lectured instead of respected?
India stood up to the world on the nuclear file and came out stronger. That took spine, not selfies.
Mr Sarna says it plainly, dignity of a nation is non negotiable.
Stop the photo ops. It is time to call the bully's bluff.
https://x.com/KushagraSaxena_/status/2104440762972959047?s=20
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Sadanand Dhume
@dhume
I wish Indians would stop pretending—to themselves and to the world—that China and India are still clubbed together in any meaningful way. China has emerged as a major world power. There’s no guarantee that India will automatically follow suit.
https://x.com/dhume/status/2104039466369200343?s=20
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Jayant Bhandari
@JayantBhandari5
The gulf between China and India is not merely economic. It is cultural. China has virtue, work ethic, honor, and skills. If India can bridge the gap in 17 centuries, it will be lucky. For now, India is falling apart, degrading, and getting lost in debauchery.
https://x.com/JayantBhandari5/status/2104290922762842220?s=20
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Xi-Trump Summit: US-China G2 Rapprochement to Avoid Thucydides Trap
The summit meeting of the leaders of China and the United States in Washington appears to signal a rapprochement between the two superpowers. President Trump has repeatedly referred to what he calls "G2", without mentioning "G7" or "G20", the groups that include many more countries. This development is seen as positive for world peace but it diminishes India's significance as a "counterweight to China" and the benefits Indians expected to flow from the US-China confrontation in…
ContinuePosted by Riaz Haq on September 25, 2026 at 5:30pm — 3 Comments
Digital Pakistan: Bridging the Geographic Digital Divide in the Country
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ContinuePosted by Riaz Haq on September 20, 2026 at 12:30pm — 8 Comments
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