On G7 Summit Sidelines: Ties never as close, says Trump as Modi flags Hormuz, sailor safety

5 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jun 17, 2026 09:36 PM IST

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)

In their first meeting in over a year following the strain in bilateral ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told US President Donald Trump about India’s concerns regarding the Strait of Hormuz and the safety of its seafarers.

Trump, who met Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit at Evian-les-Bains in eastern France, called seafaring a “rough profession” and that he loves “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, Trump 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 also said that “And we’ll be going to India sometime in the future.”

On the West Asia crisis, Modi, while commending Trump for his leadership on the progress made in the efforts to restore peace, said, “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 emphasized 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.

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Trump, while responding to questions on Indian sailors killed in American strikes and if he had any words of condolence for the grieving families, 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’re great people.”

Responding to a question on whether he expects India to play any role in West Asia, he said, “Yeah, I do. I do. I think India plays a big role in everything, as long as he’s the leader.”

On the defence relationship between India and the US, Trump 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.”

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On questions regarding more opportunities for highly skilled professionals, he said, “Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, always. Yeah, we’ve 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’re doing a lot of things, other things are happening… We have over $19.2 trillion coming in, and we’re building factories, we’re building everything… I just want to say he’s been my friend for a long time now, and we’ve 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.

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Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

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Narendra Modi

US President Donald Trump