Don does a backflip, praises Theresa after blasting her

London, July 13: President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May worked hard on Friday to avoid a political crisis after a bombshell interview in which Mr Trump slammed Ms May’s plans for Britain’s departure from the EU and praised her political rival Boris Johnson, who quit her Cabinet this week over Brexit differences. He also criticised immigration in Europe and declared that London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a Muslim, had failed to stop terrorism.

Hours later, however, he denied he had criticised Ms May and declared the US- UK relationship “the highest level of special”.

Mr Trump’s pompfilled visit to the UK has been overshadowed by widespread protests and an explosive interview in the Sun which appeared Thursday in which he blasted Ms May for ignoring his advice by opting for a soft Brexit strategy, and warned that any attempts to maintain close ties with the EU would make a lucrative US trade deal very

Government sources on Friday refused to comment on media reports that US President Donald Trump had been invited by the government earlier this year to be the chief guest at next year’s Republic- Day parade.

But the reported move by India to invite President Trump could prove tricky, given the strident posture adopted by the Trump Administration in the past few weeks on several issues impacting India, including the demand to completely scrap oil imports from Iran, pressure to not acquire weaponry from Russia, Indian tariffs on US products and potential restrictions on the H1B and H4 visas that could impact Indians in the US.

The tenure of the Modi Government so far has seen considerable strengthening of the strategic Indo- US ties, with then US President Barack Obama having been the chief guest at the 2015 R- Day parade. Though the ties began on a good note with the Trump Administration as well, the last few months have seen mounting Indian concern regarding several strident postures being adopted by President Trump on various issues.

The last few months have also seen informal separate bilateral summits between PM Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in what was seen in some quarters as a re- calibration of sorts in Indian foreign policy.

Just recently, the IndoUS 2+ 2 dialogue at the foreign and defence ministerial level was also postponed.