New Delhi: A new book by two Washington Post reporters has claimed that US President Donald Trump reportedly dismissed Indian concerns about its northern neighbour by telling Prime Minister Narendra Modi that at least India doesn’t share a border with China.

For the record, India shares a 3,488-kilometre-long land border with China, which passes through thick population areas and high Himalayan altitudes.

The claim about Trump’s inaccurate geographical skills was made in a book, titled A Very Stable Genius, authored by Pulitzer-winning journalists Philip Rucker and Carole D Leonnig. The Washington Post published an article on Wednesday previewing the book, ahead of its release on January 21.

According to the report, the book is full of details of Trump’s first three years as president, which include the investigation into ‘collusion’ with Russia by special counsel.

The title is a reference to Trump’s description of himself, which was apparently triggered by a television news segment on Fox News about his mental health.

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The article begins by citing Trump’s interaction with Modi.

“President Trump reveals himself as woefully uninformed about the basics of geography, incorrectly telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.””

The book apparently says that after Trump bungled his geography, “Modi’s eyes bulged out in surprise”. The Indian PM’s expression “gradually shifted, from shock and concern to resignation”.

The authors quote a Trump aide as stating that Modi “left that meeting and said, ‘This is not a serious man. I cannot count on this man as a partner.” The presidential aide claimed that after the meeting, “‘the Indians took a step back’ in their diplomatic relations with the United States.”

There is no date given for this meeting, so it is not clear when it took place. However, while Trump and Modi have met on the sidelines of multilateral meetings and UN general assemblies, their last interaction during a bilateral state visit was in June 2017 when the Indian prime minister travelled to Washington.

Modi had met Trump last September, when the latter attend the ‘Howdy Modi’ rally in Houston. However, the Indian prime minister had not gone to Washington for formal talks at the White House.

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According to some media reports, Trump may be travelling to India next month on his first presidential state visit.

This is not the first time that Trump’s alleged undiplomatic interaction with the Indian prime minister has figured in the pages of The Washington Post.

In June 2018, the paper reported that Trump imitated Modi’s accent while recounting that the Indian premier had told him that “never has a country given so much away for so little in return” in Afghanistan.