Malaysia says PM Modi to attend East Asia summit; MEA yet to confirm

Malaysia confirms PM Modi's attendance at the East Asia Summit starting October 26, but India's Ministry of External Affairs remains non-committal on his travel plans

Since 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has skipped only one East Asia Summit (EAS) — the 17th edition held in November 2022 in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh.

 

But with barely a few days left for the 20th EAS in Kuala Lumpur (October 26), the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was non-committal on Tuesday on whether the PM would attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit as well as the EAS.

 

Malaysian government representatives and its media, however, have said that Modi would be one of the world leaders attending the EAS, along with US President Donald Trump, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and several others.

 

 

Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan announced last week that the Prime Minister of India was “likely” to attend. On Monday, Malaysia's New Straits Times also wrote that Modi would be attending the summit.

 

On Monday, Trump confirmed that he will be travelling to Kuala Lumpur to attend the summit, his first visit to Asia during his current tenure.

 

According to sources, the uncertainty in announcing Modi’s itinerary has to do with his travel schedule related to the Bihar Assembly polls.

 

The uncertainty is also because of the lack of deliverables on the India-US trade deal, and whether Modi and Trump would meet on the margins of the summit.

 

Modi and Trump last met in February in Washington DC. Over the last month, the friction between the two sides over the US tariffs seemed to have eased.

 

Modi and Trump had spoken on phone on September 17, when Trump wished Modi on his birthday. On October 9, the PM congratulated the US President on the Gaza peace deal.

 

US Ambassador-designate to India Sergio Gor also travelled to New Delhi to meet the Indian leadership. 

 

But uncertainty has returned between New Delhi and Washington. This is after Trump claimed last week as well as on Monday that Modi has assured him in a recent phone call that India would gradually pause Russian oil purchases.

 

The MEA stated on Thursday that it was unaware of any such phone call having taken place.

 

If the PM were to travel to Kuala Lumpur, he is expected to meet leaders of India’s BRICS partners, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose deputy was in India last week, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

 

India will host the BRICS Summit next year.

 

Modi could also meet Canadian PM Mark Carney, with both countries having taken several steps to "reset" their ties, and some of the Quad partner countries, whose summit in New Delhi was slated this year, but which is now unlikely given the strained India-US ties.

 

Apart from India and the US, Quad comprises Australia and Japan. India and Australia are working on New Delhi hosting Australian PM Anthony Albanese in November, while Modi on Tuesday congratulated the new Japanese PM. 

 

Beginning with the ninth EAS, which took place in November 2014 in Myanmar, five months after he took over as India’s Prime Minister, Modi has travelled to attend all EAS barring the one in 2022, where the then Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar represented him.

 

The PM attended the ninth EAS, his first as India’s Prime Minister, in Myanmar in November 2014. He attended the subsequent EAS in November 2015 in Malaysia, the 11th EAS in Laos in September 2016, the 12th EAS in the Philippines in November 2017, the 13th in Singapore in November 2018 and the 14th in Thailand in November 2019.

 

The 16th and 17th EAS were held online with Vietnam and Brunei as the host countries in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

 

Modi attended the next two summits that took place in September 2023 and October 2024, in Indonesia and Laos, respectively.