Who lost India? That poser harks back to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s loss of China to Mao’s Communists in 1949. Just as that question haunted everyone from President Truman on down, so now is a growing sense that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in President Trump’s words, is now “lost” as an American ally. Is India’s loss permanent? Either way, the question is who, when the historians are done, will bear the blame?

Once seemingly best of friends, Messrs. Trump and Modi are now on the outs, the president’s critics say. Yet, as George Washington observed in 1796, interests, rather than friendships, animate relations between countries. “There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation,” the first president said in his farewell address. Was Mr. Trump’s barb at India calculated to remind New Delhi where its interests lie?

“Looks like we lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China,” Mr. Trump harumphed on Truth Social, adding sarcastically, “May they have a long and prosperous future together.” The president’s critics widely blame him for “losing” India. He did, after all, impose a 50 percent tariff on India for its consumption of Russian oil. Helping to finance President Vladimir Putin’s war is hardly the way to end the Ukraine war “on day one,” the president reasoned. 

New Delhi protests that Mr. Trump is yet to similarly punish Beijing, which buys more Russian oil than India, or the Europeans, who also consume Russian energy. Fair enough, though the president is now pressuring Europeans to end oil purchases from Russia. As critics gripe, imposing tariffs on India amid attempts to finalize a trade deal pushed Mr. Modi to the arms of the Chinese party boss, Xi Jinping, and America’s adversaries.

India has a long history of dancing with America’s enemies. It was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, grossly misnamed given that supposed neutrality also meant siding with the Soviets. Mr. Modi, though, has made great progress in shedding that past. Yes, he plays along with the Beijing-led bloc known as Brics, but more crucially he’s also militarily allied with Australia and Japan in the American-led Quad. 

As the executive editor at Hindustan Times, Shishir Gupta, tells our Benny Avni, India is not about to leave the Quad, which was formed to counter Communist China’s aggression. Calling himself an incurable “optimist” on the future of Indo-American ties, the well-connected Delhi newsman says that both Messrs. Trump and Modi need to re-evaluate, and repair, their alliance. Either way, the scribe says, “India definitely is not going with China.” 

Mr. Trump posted an image of Mr. Modi behind Messrs. Xi and Putin at last week’s Beijing shindig, widely seen as the Communist chairman’s attempt to seize world leadership away from America. Yet, the Indian premier pointedly skipped the event’s culmination, a military parade attended by leaders from Russia, North Korea, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. If Mr. Modi is reverting to “non-alliance,” he mostly seems eager to forgo a Beijing alliance. 

India’s leaders “need to decide which side they want to be on,” the secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick, told Bloomberg. His and Mr. Trump’s statements could be interpreted as a threat — or an opening gambit on renewed trade talks. Mr. Lutnick is urging India to open its markets. Some Delhi hotheads see Washington’s stance as neo-colonialist. We hope, rather, that Mr. Trump is trying to avoid ending up as the culprit who lost India.