Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump are expected to meet in France on Wednesday on the sidelines of the G7 summit, days after American forces’ killing of three Indian seafarers introduced a new strain in bilateral ties.
Although there’s been no official word from either capital on the meeting, White House officials have been quoted in the media as saying Trump would meet Modi in France. India does not usually confirm such pull-aside bilaterals at multilateral meetings till the eleventh hour.
A Reuters report on Saturday said the two leaders would discuss the trade deal but ruled out any immediate agreement. US trade representative Jamieson Greer will travel to India the week after the G7 summit.
A key consideration for India is the rapidly shifting US tariff structure. Earlier this month, the US proposed an additional tariff of 12.5 per cent on imports from India and certain other countries because of what Washington describes as their use of forced labour.
Washington is also looking at imposing a separate tariff on India, claiming India has excess capacity in industries such as textiles and is exporting too much to America, damaging US industry.
New Delhi wants those tariffs to kick in and then negotiate a trade deal that will extend a competitive rate for Indian goods compared with direct competitors, an Indian government official said in New Delhi on June 8.
The bilateral trade talks gathered pace in the first week of June. A US delegation led by the assistant US trade representative for South and Central Asia, Brendan Lynch, held three days of talks with Indian trade officials in New Delhi.
India had reached a trade deal with the US in February after battling 50 per cent tariffs for six months — the highest in the world. However, the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) has been held up following the US Supreme Court’s grounding of the Trump administration’s signature reciprocal tariff.
“The rationale for the BTA has disappeared after the US Supreme Court’s February 20 ruling that struck down the reciprocal tariff framework,” said Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative.
“The proposed BTA
now appears increasingly one-sided, with India being asked to make significant
concessions while receiving no benefits in return.”
India should reassess its participation and consider stepping away from the bilateral trade agreement, as Malaysia has done, Srivastava argued.
If the Trump-Modi meeting does happen, it will be the first since their White House engagement in early February 2025, soon after Trump had assumed office for the second time.
The two leaders had been scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the G7 in mid-June last year in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada. But the meeting could not take place as Trump cut his visit short and returned home.
If Modi does meet Trump, he will be expected to raise the US attacks on three Indian-crewed merchant vessels in the Gulf of Oman last week, one of which killed three Indians.
There’s widespread outrage in India not just over the attacks and deaths but also over what is being seen as a weak diplomatic response by an excessively deferential New Delhi.
The outrage has been compounded by the absence of any remorse from the US, as evident from the readout issued by the state department on the conversation between external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and secretary of state Marco Rubio on Friday.