Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump will meet on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian, White House officials told HT on Saturday, hours after the Prime Minister departed for a nearly week-long visit to France and Slovakia.
The trip, which runs from June 13 to 18, includes bilateral talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Nice, the prime minister’s first visit to Slovakia, G7 outreach sessions in Evian, and an appearance at VivaTech in Paris. Defense and security cooperation, trade, technology, concerns of the Global South, and the repercussions of the conflict in West Asia on energy security are scheduled to top the agenda.
While White House officials announced the bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit, there was no official word from the Indian side. Indo-US relations were strained this week when three Indian sailors were killed in a US raid on a Palau-flagged tanker in the waters off Oman. The Ministry of External Affairs summoned the US Charge d’Affaires twice in three days to protest the killings, which External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also raised with his US counterpart Marco Rubio on Friday.
In his departure statement, Modi said France “occupies a special place in India’s strategic vision” and that discussions with Macron will focus on strengthening cooperation in key sectors, especially technology.
On Sunday, the two leaders will jointly inaugurate the Bharat Innovates project in Nice – part of the Indo-France Year of Innovation – which connects Indian startups with global investment and serves as an accelerator for innovations from India’s higher education system. Their bilateral meeting will depend on raising relations to a special global strategic partnership in February.
From Nice, Modi will travel to Bratislava from June 14-15, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Slovakia since the central European country’s independence in 1993. He will hold talks with President Peter Pellegrini and Prime Minister Robert Fico and meet Slovak business leaders.
Modi said the visit “will revitalize India’s strategic partnership with the European Union, of which Slovakia is a member, and build on the momentum of the India-EU free trade agreement, scheduled to be signed by the end of the year.”
Modi is scheduled to return to France to attend the awareness sessions of the G7 Summit at the Evian Resort from June 16 to 17. India is among five countries – along with Brazil, Egypt, Kenya and South Korea – invited by host France to participate.
“India’s presence in the G7 reflects the trust our partners place in us and our growing global standing,” Modi said. “At the G7, India will not only speak for itself but also give voice to the aspirations of the Global South.”
The bilateral meeting with Trump is scheduled to be held in the city of Evian, according to the White House. If the meeting goes ahead, it will be the first between the two leaders since Modi traveled to Washington in February 2025, and it comes at a time when the relationship is witnessing ongoing tensions. The killing of Indian sailors in US strikes has complicated what had been a carefully managed relationship. The leaders have stayed in touch — speaking eight times by phone since 2025, including a call in February to announce the framework of a trade deal that has not yet been signed, and a 40-minute conversation in April about the US-Iran war.
The two leaders were also scheduled to meet at the G7 summit last year in Canada before Trump suddenly left the venue to return to Washington. This was followed by a phone call during which Modi explained that hostilities between India and Pakistan stopped in May 2025 after an understanding between the military officials of the two countries, without any mediation.
India is likely to seek more clarity on the trade agreement and Washington’s plans for the Iran war during the Evian meeting.
Ahead of the new tensions this week, people familiar with the matter told HT that the meeting was expected to cover a review of progress on the trade deal and potential new announcements on the defense front, including the Javelin missiles, though they did not provide details. It is unclear how these plans were affected.
The difference is sharp in how the two sides have publicly framed recent events. Describing a conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Jaishankar stressed the strong protest over the killing of the three sailors; Washington’s statement on Saturday stressed that commercial ships must “immediately comply with the orders of the American forces.”
State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott said that Rubio “stressed that violations of the US blockade and the illicit transfer of Iranian oil will not be tolerated.”
Modi will conclude his visit on June 18 in Paris by attending VivaTech 2026 alongside Macron. India will have the largest pavilion at a major European technology and innovation summit – a presence that Modi said reflects the potential for partnership between Indian and European innovation ecosystems. He also said that he looked forward to meeting members of the “vibrant Indian community in Paris, who have served as a living bridge between our two countries.”
France has set a wide-ranging agenda for the G7 summit, covering macroeconomic imbalances, international partnerships, supply chains for critical minerals, protection of minors online, major geopolitical crises, and organized crime. The impact of the West Asian crisis on global trade and energy flows is expected to feature prominently in the awareness sessions.
