US Ambassador Sergio Gor said India had asked to avoid questions during PM Modi’s June 17 meeting with Donald Trump in France, but Trump invited reporters anyway, turning it into a 45-minute press interaction.
India had specifically asked the US to avoid questions at the press conference after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor has claimed. Trump initially agreed, but then appeared to forget the request and invited questions, turning the interaction into a 45-minute presser with PM Modi sitting beside him, Gor said at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum on Saturday.
The PM Modi-Trump meeting took place on June 17 on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains in France.
“We were behind the scenes, behind the stage, and at one point it was just the president and I, and he asked me, he goes, what the Indians are going to raise. We went over some topics,” Gor said, recalling his conversation with Trump before the meeting.
“And he said, do they have any asks? And the MEA had one ask. He said, and it was, let’s bring in the media, but let’s not do a full press conference,” the ambassador added.
Gor said he conveyed India’s preference directly to Trump.
“I told the president, I said, the Indians prefer no questions. He said, sure, no problem,” Gor recalled.
The meeting subsequently began with journalists and cameras present. Gor said there were around 50 cameras in the room as Modi and Trump sat across from each other and delivered their opening remarks.
“So the meeting starts, the press comes in, there must have been 50 cameras, the president is sitting here, the prime minister is sitting there, they both speak for a few minutes,” he said.
But immediately after the opening remarks, Trump turned towards the cameras and asked reporters, “Any questions?”
Gor said the question effectively opened up the interaction.
“And that opened everything up,” the ambassador said, adding that what followed was “a 45-minute press conference” in which “everything was on the table”.
The government has not officially responded to Gor’s comments regarding New Delhi’s no-question request.
PM Modi’s meeting with Trump on June 17 on the sidelines of the G7 summit in eastern France came days after three Indian mariners were killed in an attack by the US Navy on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. The safety of Indian seafarers operating in the conflict zone was among the issues raised by Modi during the interaction.
“Many Indian seafarers in the Strait of Hormuz, their safety is of the utmost importance,” the PM told Trump during the meeting. Trump, however, played down the risks associated with seafaring, describing it as a “rough profession”.
