PM Modi, Trump likely to come face to face at G7 summit

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi is likely to come face to face with President Donald Trump at the G7 summit that France will host June 15-17, with both India and the US having confirmed the leaders’ participation in the meeting. However, while both sides are said to be looking at the possibility of an engagement on the margins, no meeting has been finalised yet.

Modi is expected to have bilateral meetings with other G7 leaders too, including host Emmanuel Macron. Modi and Trump have not had a meeting since the former’s visit to the US in Feb 2025, weeks after the latter’s return to the White House.

Ties went south soon after because of differences over a range of issues, including trade, India’s continued purchase of Russian oil and Trump’s repeated claims about having ended the India-Pakistan conflict last year.

While some of those differences are yet to be entirely resolved, things seem to be improving with secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to India last month that saw him extending an invitation on behalf of Trump to Modi to visit the US. India has so far not said publicly the PM has accepted the invitation. Modi is likely to travel to Florida for the G20 summit in Dec. The two sides are in the middle of another round of talks to finalise the bilateral trade agreement they have been discussing for over a year.