Modi holds Putin close, but he will make up with Trump

In a year of striking diplomatic images that sum up just how much the world has turned upside down since Donald Trump reentered the White House, the footage of Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi holding hands as they entered the room to meet Xi Jinping was right up there.

- Steve Bloomfield

At a time when the rest of the west had slowly been coming to the obvious conclusion that the US was no longer a reliable ally - indeed, possibly now an adversary - here was visual evidence that a new alliance was emerging on the other side of the world.

This week, Putin and Modi will engage in more hand-holding, joke-sharing and big-man camaraderie when the Russian president flies to Delhi for the first time since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In between the public shows of bonhomie, the two leaders will discuss arms deals and oil purchases - and probably engage in a dig or two at the west. For diplomats watching from Washington and London, Brussels and Berlin, there will be concern that India under Modi has decisively moved into the orbit of autocracies and illiberal democracies.

Part of the shift is personal. In the wake of the four-day conflict between India and Pakistan in May, Trump tried to take credit for the ceasefire. Modi, though, made it clear that the US had nothing to do with it.