Another Modi-Trump Meet This Year Unlikely as PM to Skip East Asia Summit
New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will skip in-person participation in the East Asia Summit later this month, marking a rare absence as he has attended all but one so far.
His decision would also mean he is unlikely to have another opportunity to meet US President Donald Trump this year.
Sources said in the evening of October 22 that Modi will not travel to Kuala Lumpur for the annual gathering of East Asian leaders that will begin on October 26. Instead, they said that he is expected to deliver a virtual address, with external affairs minister S. Jaishankar representing India at the meeting.
Modi confirmed this decision with a post on X on the morning of October 23:
"Had a warm conversation with my dear friend, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia. Congratulated him on Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship and conveyed best wishes for the success of upcoming Summits. Look forward to joining the ASEAN-India Summit virtually, and to further deepening of the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership."
Several hours earlier, the Malaysian prime minister had posted on X about the phone call. Ibrahim wrote in Malay that Modi informed him that “he will attend virtually due to the ongoing Deepavali celebrations in India at that time”. The translation is what is offered by X's automatic translation service.
“I respect his decision and extended my greetings for a happy Deepavali to him and the entire people of India,” he said. The festival of Diwali had been celebrated in India on Monday and Tuesday this week. However, the state of Bihar, which is soon going for an assembly election and where Modi is the star campaigner for his Bharatiya Janata Party, is going to celebrate Chatth Puja this weekend.
Modi's decision to stay away from the summit is unusual. Since taking office in 2014, he was present at every East Asia Summit until 2019. The 2020 and 2021 editions were held virtually due to the pandemic. In 2022, then-Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar represented India in Cambodia, the only time Modi did not attend. He resumed participation in 2023 in Thailand and travelled to the 2024 summit in Laos.
With Trump scheduled to attend the Kuala Lumpur summit as part of his three-nation Asia visit, there had been expectations that the Indian and US leaders might meet. Modi had travelled to Washington early in Trump's second term this February, but the two have not crossed paths at any international summit since then.
Relations between India and the US have faced turbulence in recent months after Trump imposed steep tariffs of up to 50% on Indian imports – half in retaliation as so-called reciprocal tariffs and the rest as a penalty for New Delhi's continued imports of Russian crude.
Both sides have been in talks on a possible trade deal to reduce the duties.
A Modi-Trump meeting had also been expected on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, but Trump cut his trip short and returned home. The two leaders later spoke by phone, and according to the Indian readout, Modi told Trump that clashes between India and Pakistan had ended only after contact between the two militaries.
Trump has since repeatedly claimed to have averted a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, most recently making the claim during Diwali celebrations at the White House.
Modi had also been invited to the Gaza Peace Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, co-chaired by Egypt and the US, but did not attend.
While Modi will travel to South Africa next month for the G-20 summit, Trump has already said he will not attend, citing what he calls Johannesburg’s “very bad policies”, including its land redistribution efforts and its decision to bring a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and falsely claiming that South Africa’s policies discriminate against Whites.
It had been expected that the next Quad leaders' summit, following the one hosted by former US President Joe Biden last year, would be held in India in the second half of this year. With no sign of that meeting materialising, the chances of a Modi-Trump encounter in the coming months appear slim.
Note: This report was updated with Modi's and Ibrahim's posts on X.
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