New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump Wednesday on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France. The meeting was their first since they met in the United States in February 2025. After India-US ties came under strain over Trump’s punitive tariffs, global media is watching closely to see whether the latest meeting can help reset relations between the two countries. Anupreeta Das of The New York Times reports.
“Mr Modi may be seeking to stabilise ties, but his task is tough: Any grievances he lodges will be from a country weakened by the Iran war to one that started the conflict and has appeared indifferent to its fallout on India,” she writes.
The death of Indian sailors in the Gulf of Oman during US strikes recently also struck a blow to US-India relations. “India has found its proximate ties to the United States upended by an unpredictable and sometimes bellicose Mr Trump, and his administration’s determination to open India’s markets and enforce immigration policies that disproportionately affect Indian students and workers in the United States,” the report notes.
Atul Keshap, president of the US-India Business Council told NYT that both governments should focus on working to solidify common interests, such as the digital economy and nuclear energy, rather than delay a final trade deal because of “endless negotiations”.
“India has been stubborn in negotiating a new trade deal with the United States after Mr Trump slapped a bevy of tariffs on countries last year, frustrating US officials with long drawn-out discussions,” Das reports.
“Despite the souring relations on trade and geopolitics, the performative theatre of the two men—both strongman-style leaders—remains,” the report says. Last week, Trump congratulated Modi on reaching the milestone of becoming India’s longest-serving PM. “And a Great One he is!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Mukesh Ambani’s Jio is set to go public after multiple delays. Chris Kay and Krishn Kaushik of the Financial Times report on the importance of Jio’s listing at a time of India’s investment drought since the US-Iran war began.
“Jio could file a draft prospectus for its expected $4bn IPO with India’s capital markets regulator within days and just before Ambani’s closely watched annual speech on Friday to shareholders of his oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries, according to two people familiar with his plans,” the report says.
FT also notes how the past year has been testing for Ambani’s Reliance. Company’s share price has fallen 15 percent in 2026 and net profit for the three months till March dropped 13 percent as Reliance’s mainstay refining business was affected by the West Asia conflict.
“The later-than-expected listing of Jio comes against the backdrop of a weak Indian equity market, with the US-Israeli war with Iran putting the brakes on what was set to be a third consecutive record year for IPOs,” Kay and Kaushik report.
Gautam Bhattacharyya of the BBC writes about India’s future in football and why a country with 1.4 billion people is not part of the FIFA World Cup.
“Will India ever play at the FIFA World Cup? The familiar lament that Indian football fans have learnt to live with is back after the “greatest show on earth” kicked off last week,” he writes.
“For those tracking the fortunes of the Blue Tigers—as the Indian men’s national football team is called—over the years, the question is one of the biggest clichés as the country has never progressed beyond the preliminary rounds of Asian zone qualifiers,” he adds.
However, it’s not just India. Even China has not qualified for World Cup. “FIFA, however, is well aware of the importance of these markets, prompting it to dispatch a high-powered media rights team to India to secure a last-minute broadcasting deal for live coverage of the matches.”
Could India qualify for the World Cup someday? India star footballer Baichung Bhutia says yes. “India can definitely play (in the World Cup) as nothing is impossible. The quota of Asian teams have gone up to eight (along with a ninth team in Iraq which came through from confederation play-offs this time) in the bigger 48-team format, where teams like Uzbekistan and Jordan are playing. However, it will require a lot of hard work,” he added while talking to BBC.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)