According to international media reports, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi skipped the ASEAN summit in Malaysia, likely due to avoiding a meeting with US President Donald Trump amid sensitive trade negotiations, analysts have said.
They also claim that the decision to skip the summit was due in part to the upcoming crucial state polls in the Bihar region. During the special event at the White House last week, Trump had retweeted that India would stop buying Russian oil.
The US President then attended the ASEAN summit meeting in Kuala Lumpur before departing for Japan on Monday. Indian PM Modi had backtracked from his scheduled visit to Malaysia over the weekend to attend an ASEAN summit and opted instead to join the summit virtually.
The opposition Congress party had blamed the change of plan on Modi’s fear of meeting Trump. The annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a ten-nation group, as well as associated meetings, was held from October 26 to 28 in Kuala Lumpur.
The report added that Modi was campaigning for the BJP in the crucial Bihar elections and didn’t want to risk meeting with Trump, which could end up being embarrassing for the Prime Minister.
On countless occasions, US President Donald Trump has claimed to broker the ceasefire between Pakistan and India multiple times since May 2025, which saw the latest round of military escalation between the long-standing neighboring arch-rivals. He also incessantly mentions the downing of Indian jets by Pakistan in his media talks.
Read more: Trump says US Constitution bars him from seeking third term
“Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stayed away from a regional leaders summit in Malaysia this week to avoid meeting US President Donald Trump and having a possible discussion about Pakistan,” people familiar with the matter said.
“Officials in the government were apprehensive that Trump would repeat his claim that he mediated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after a four-day armed conflict in May, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private,” Bloomberg reported about the alleged actual reason behind the skipping out on the summit.
Bloomberg also reported that in August, Modi had turned down an invitation from President Trump to visit the White House over the anticipation that he would set up a meeting with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Asim Munir.
Relations between Washington and New Delhi went down in August after Trump raised tariffs to 50% with U.S. officials accusing India of fueling Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying discounted oil from Moscow. Also fueling the tensions has been Trump’s insistence on ending the May conflict between India and Pakistan, something that New Delhi adamantly refuses.