PM Modi set to join Asean event virtually, won't meet Donald Trump

Jaishankar to lead delegation for Malaysia summit on October 27

Ending days of speculation over a possible meeting with US President Donald Trump on the margins of the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Kuala Lumpur, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday that Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi will not travel to the Malaysian capital.

 

The MEA said that the PM will “virtually attend” the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-India meeting on October 26, while External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent him at the EAS on October 27.

 

On Thursday morning, in a social media post, the PM said he had a phone conversation with his Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim, and was looking forward to joining the Asean-India summit virtually.

 

In his Facebook post, Ibrahim said Modi had informed him that he would attend the summit online since the “Deepavali festival was still being celebrated” in India. The phone call took place on Wednesday evening.

 

Sources attributed Modi’s inability to attend the meetings in Kuala Lumpur to scheduling conflicts. This will be only the second occasion since 2014 that the PM will not attend the EAS. The then Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar represented the PM at the EAS in Phnom Penh in November 2022.

 

Trump is among several world leaders attending the EAS, along with Canadian PM Mark Carney and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

 

India and the US are currently negotiating a trade deal, having narrowed their differences substantially. The White House has been pressing India to curb its purchases of Russian oil, with New Delhi not disputing Trump’s claim that it has agreed to reduce these purchases to nearly zero by year-end.

 

However, as evident from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) readout of Modi’s latest phone call with Trump on Wednesday, the two sides disagree on Trump’s claim that he mediated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.

 

On Wednesday, the PMO said Modi thanked Trump for his Deepavali greetings and “reiterated India’s unwavering commitment to combating terrorism and fostering international cooperation”. On X, Modi posted: “On this festival of lights, may our two great democracies continue to illuminate the world with hope and stand united against terrorism in all its forms.”

 

In contrast, speaking to the media on Wednesday morning (India time), Trump said the two discussed trade, India’s purchases of Russian oil, and India’s military conflict with Pakistan. Official sources in New Delhi later clarified that Pakistan was not discussed during the call.

 

On Thursday morning (India time), Trump repeated his claim that India has agreed to “stop” buying oil from Russia and would reduce purchases to “almost nothing” by year-end. He added that it is a process and will take time. “India, as you know, has told me they are going to stop… It’s a process. You can’t just stop… By the end of the year, they’ll be down to almost nothing, almost 40 per cent of the oil. India — they’ve been great. Spoke to PM Modi yesterday. They’ve been absolutely great," he told reporters at the White House.

 

Trump also claimed that tariffs have helped prevent conflicts. “I solved eight wars. Of the eight, five or six were because of tariffs,” he said. He added that he told India and Pakistan, “If you want to fight, that’s okay. But you’re going to pay tariffs. Two days later, they called up and said they’re not going to fight anymore. They have peace.”

 

The Asean-India meetings and the EAS are scheduled for October 26 and 27, coinciding with the Chhath festival in poll-bound Bihar. The PM is scheduled to launch his poll campaign in Bihar by addressing a public meeting in Samastipur on Friday.

 

Modi and Trump last met when the US President hosted the PM on February 13 in Washington, DC. They have not met at any multilateral summits or events since.

 

With the Quad Summit, which India was scheduled to host, unlikely to take place this year, the chances of their meeting during the remainder of the year remain slim.

 

The PM is likely to travel to Johannesburg for the G20 Summit on November 22-23, while Trump has already announced he will not attend, citing South Africa’s “very bad policies”, including land redistribution.

 

The two could have met in June at the G7 Summit in Canada, but Trump cut short his visit to return home. In a subsequent phone call, Modi declined Trump’s request to visit the White House on his return journey. The PM also maintained that India-Pakistan military clashes ended after Pakistan sued for peace, not because of mediation by the White House.

 

The PM did not attend the UN General Assembly session in late September and also skipped the Gaza Peace Summit at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, which Trump co-chaired.

 

Since June, Modi has attended two multilateral summits: Brics in Rio de Janeiro in July and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on September 1 in Tianjin, China. The US is not a member of either group.

 

Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary (communications in-charge), said the reason the PM is not travelling to Kuala Lumpur is “simple”: “He just doesn't want to be cornered by Trump, who will also be there. He refused an invitation to attend the Gaza Peace Summit in Egypt a few weeks ago, precisely for this reason.”

 

“Posting messages in praise of Trump on social media is one thing. But to be seen hobnobbing physically with the man who has claimed 53 times that he stopped Operation Sindoor and has claimed five times that India has promised to stop buying oil from Russia is another matter. It’s far too risky for him,” Ramesh added.