In their first meeting in over a year following the strain in bilateral ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump Wednesday walked the tightrope, projecting a positive path ahead with a trade deal soon, a strategic commitment to security, and remarks that rekindled hopes of skilled Indian professionals.
Following the talks, Modi said, “Pleased to meet President Trump in Evian. We reviewed the sustained progress in our bilateral cooperation in trade, energy, defence, technology and people-to-people ties.”
“Conveyed India’s appreciation on the progress in the efforts for restoring peace and stability in West Asia. Keeping the Strait of Hormuz open is vital for the global economy. Reiterated the importance of ensuring the safety and security of civilians, including seafarers.”
The leaders, according to Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, reviewed the significant progress achieved under the “India-US COMPACT, including in defence, trade, energy and people-to-people ties”.
“Both sides reiterated their commitment to continue working together to advance the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership for the benefit of peoples of both countries and to promote peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond,” Jaiswal said.
While Modi flagged India’s concerns over the Strait of Hormuz and the safety of its seafarers, Trump appeared conciliatory and measured on hot-button issues ranging from the long-pending trade deal to the mobility of Indian professionals headed to the US.
Reiterating that he stopped eight wars, Trump was careful not to mention Pakistan or its leadership given Indian sensitivities. Bilateral ties, strained by Trump’s claim of brokering the India-Pakistan ceasefire in May 2025 post Operation Sindoor, a claim Delhi rejected, dived after he imposed heavy tariffs on India including a penalty for buying Russian energy. The preliminary framework for the bilateral trade deal could be reached only in February this year.
Responding to questions, Trump did not express regret on the loss of Indian lives during the West Asia conflict, including the death of three Indian seafarers in a US Navy missile attack, but his remarks were in sharp contrast to what the US State Department had said on the call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar – it had quoted Rubio saying “violations of the US blockade and the illicit transport of Iranian oil will not be tolerated”. This had led to a row in India.
Asked if he had any words of condolence for the grieving families of the Indian sailors who died, Trump said, “Yeah, I do. I heard about that. It’s a rough profession, there’s no question about it. And we work together on it. This has been happening throughout time, but we work together. We love, we love all of those people, they are great people.”
Underlining that relations between the two countries were never as close, Trump said they were close to concluding a trade deal. He called Modi a “tough” negotiator.
Pointing at Modi, he said, “He’s the most beautiful looking man. He looks so nice. He’s like an angel, but actually he’s a killer. I don’t want to use that word, killer. He’s as tough as they come, but he looks so good. So he gets you by surprise.”
“There’s few people like this. People say he’s such a nice man. I said he’s very tough. He’s a tough trader, and he loves the Indian people, but he also loves the USA. We had Howdy Modi in Houston, remember, that was great.” He recalled people in thousands at the Ahmedabad stadium when he visited India in February 2020.
Asked about his possible visit to India for the summit of the Quad leaders, he said, “We will be going to India sometime in the future.”
On the West Asia crisis, Modi commended Trump for the progress made in the efforts to restore peace. “Thanks to your efforts, Mr President, new hope for peace and stability in the region has been rekindled, and I am confident that this will lead to long standing peace in the region. President, you and I agree that keeping the Strait of Hormuz open is vital for the global economy.”
“India has consistently emphasised the importance of ensuring freedom of navigation, and we should work together and place a particular emphasis on maritime trade… Indian seafarers in hundreds of thousands are working and performing their duties across global maritime trade routes, including the Strait of Hormuz, and their safety is of utmost importance to us. You made tremendous efforts towards reaching this understanding and this agreement, and I am confident that the issue of seafarers will receive the highest priority during the implementation of this agreement,” he said.
Responding to a question on whether he expects India to play any role in West Asia, Trump said, “Yeah, I do. I do. I think India plays a big role in everything, as long as he (Modi) is the leader.”
He even pledged to defend India in case of an attack. Perhaps mindful of the interpretation of his statement on defending India militarily, he also spoke about his “great meeting” with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
On the defence relationship between India and the US, he said, “I think it’s a great relationship. I can tell you this without having a contract. We don’t have a contract, but if they were attacked, we would be there to help them.”
“If anybody attacks that man (Modi), we’re going to be there. I’m not sure if there’s a new leader, I don’t know about that, if they’re attacked and he’s the leader, we’re going to be there now,” he said.
“I will say this, and everybody says it. I had a great meeting three weeks ago with President Xi of China. We have the strongest military in the world by far, and I built it in my first term, and we are using it in my second term, and they gave some of it away stupidly in Afghanistan, as you know, and they spent a lot on Ukraine, $350 billion. But we have the most powerful military in the world. You saw that with Venezuela, which was 48, think of it, 48 minutes, and now our relationship with Venezuela is great. We paid for the cost of the war 40 times, taking millions of barrels out. Venezuela’s benefiting, we are benefiting… Then we go to Iran, and really, in the first week, militarily, we defeated Iran. Nobody thought that could be done.”
On questions regarding more opportunities for highly skilled Indian professionals, he said, “Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, always. We have always had tremendous relationships in terms of employment with India, very talented people.”
Ahead of the meeting, Trump said, “We had in particular some very good conversations with Prime Minister Modi, India, and we’re doing trade deals, we are doing a lot of things, other things are happening… We have over $19.2 trillion coming in, and we are building factories, we are building everything… I just want to say he’s been my friend for a long time now, and we have always had a great relationship, and it’s great to be with you.”
Modi said, “We had an extremely productive meeting in Washington last year, and since then we have given new speed and new energy to our relations, and we are working together on other areas.”
“We are also happy that our teams have also been working in close coordination and engagement, and they have been working towards achievement of the targets that we had set for ourselves last year,” he said.
US President Donald Trump meets with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit, Wednesday, June 17, in Evian-les-Bains, France. (AP Photo) 
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