Trump has clear road map: PM

• India is working with China to restore pre-2020 status, says Modi

- SHUBHAJIT ROY

PRAISING US PRESIDENT Donald Trump for his "humility" and "resilience" and noting that he seems "far more prepared than before", Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said Trump has a "clear roadmap in his mind with well-defined steps, each one designed to lead him toward his goals" and that he is for "America First" while "I stand for India First".

In a wide-ranging interaction with podcaster Lex Fridman, made public on Sunday, Modi said India and China are now "working to restore conditions to how they were before 2020" — when the military standoff began along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh — and "our focus is to ensure that these differences don't turn into disputes".

On the Russia-Ukraine war, the Prime Minister said a resolution will only come when both Ukraine and Russia come to the negotiating table, and he can also tell Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a "friendly way that brother, regardless of how many people stand with you in the world, there will never be a resolution on the battlefield... Ukraine may hold countless discussions with their allies, but it will bear no fruit."

He also called out Pakistan's long-standing role in fostering terrorism, emphasising that the world is no longer in doubt about where the roots of terror lie. Pakistan, he said, has become the epicentre of terror, causing immense suffering not just to India but to the entire world.