How India Prevented Trump Meeting PM Modi Same Day As Asim Munir At White House
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New Delhi surely would have wanted to avoid a situation where India and Pakistan were hyphenated on US soil
India potentially avoided an undesirable situation in Washington DC by declining Donald Trump's invitation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stopover in the United States, as that would have meant the President meeting the PM and later Pakistan army chief Asim Munir on the same day.
The White House announced earlier on Wednesday that Trump would be hosting Pakistan's Field Marshal Asim Munir for lunch in the White House Cabinet Room on Wednesday at 1 pm Eastern Time Zone. Before this, in a call on Tuesday, President Trump invited PM Modi to do a stopover in Washington to meet him. Modi declined the invite, saying he had a prior commitment to visit Croatia, and left Canada at around 6 pm local time on Tuesday. If Modi did indeed travel to the US, he would have been in Washington post midnight local time on Wednesday.
This would have meant that the Modi-Trump meeting would also have been on Wednesday, perhaps a breakfast engagement, followed by the US President meeting Asim Munir over lunch. New Delhi surely would have wanted to avoid a situation where India and Pakistan were hyphenated on US soil and avoided a comparison of India's elected leader and Pakistan's army general being hosted by Trump on the same day in the White House. India has de-hyphenated itself from Pakistan, like ensuring foreign leaders don't visit India and Pakistan in the same trip.
Also, since the PM visited the US earlier this year when Donald Trump was elected, India would want a visit by the US President to India to happen first, which is due during the QUAD Summit in a few months. Trump had placed the request for a phone call with Modi on Tuesday when the PM was in Canada, as a meeting between the two leaders could not take place at the G7 Summit, with the President leaving early. Modi did some plain-speaking with Trump, telling him that the US did not play any mediatory role between India and Pakistan and how Islamabad fomented terror.
First Published:
June 18, 2025, 16:40 IST
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