Image: AP
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump for the first time in 16 months at the G7 in France, and also had formal bilateral meetings with Canadian PM Mark Carney, UK PM Keir Starmer and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.Modi and Trump participated in an outreach session sitting next to each other. The leaders greeted each other with a handshake – not a hug – and exchanged pleasantries. A photo uploaded by Modi on X also showed them having a little chat.A formal Modi-Trump bilateral is expected on the margins of the summit in the resort town of Evian on Wednesday. This was the first meeting between the two since Modi’s visit to the White House in Feb last year.In the meeting with Carney, both leaders reaffirmed their joint commitment to concluding the negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement at an early date, with the Canadian PM saying the deadline was the G20 summit in Dec. Modi told Carney he was looking forward to visiting Canada and hoped the agreement would be finalised by then.Modi also said Canada could become an important energy security partner for India, as they reviewed progress in bilateral economic cooperation, including developments in commercial arrangements relating to LNG, LPG and metallurgical coal. To further deepen defence and security cooperation, according to the statement, the two PMs agreed to launch negotiations on a general security of information agreement. “They also welcomed recent exchanges between defence institutions, including the visit of National Defence College of India to Canada,” said a joint press statement.Reaffirming their commitment to building a forward-looking strategic partnership, the PMs underscored the complementarities between the Indian and Canadian economies and highlighted the importance of resilient and reliable supply chains in strengthening global energy and food security, according to the statement.”The leaders noted ongoing collaboration under the Canada-India Talent and Innovation Strategy, including initiatives to strengthen skill development, innovation partnerships, and educational cooperation between institutions in the two countries,” the statement added.After the meeting with Starmer, Modi said in a post on X that they discussed ways to work closely in areas like innovation, AI, skill development, sports and more. “We also discussed how to increase investment linkages for the benefit of the people of our nations,” he wrote.
