With White House and Philippines confirming US President Donald Trump will be going to Manila on Nov 16 for the ASEAN summit, chances of a meeting between him and PM Narendra Modi have brightened.Modi too is likely to travel to Manila for the summit, although an official confirmation is still awaited. While there’s no proposal, official sources said a meeting on the margins could be important in the context of efforts to break the deadlock in negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement.External affairs minister S Jaishankar has said both sides are headed towards a landing point. US ambassador Sergio Gor too has expressed confidence that the deal will happen soon as the major issues have been resolved. The leaders had last met on the margins of the G7 summit in France this year.
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Trump is travelling to Manila on his way to China for the APEC summit. The presence of Australian and Japanese leaders in Manila opens the door also for a Quad summit on the sidelines. All 4 countries remain in touch for an early Quad leaders’ summit that hasn’t taken place for the past 2 years. In case the Quad summit doesn’t take place in Manila, there will be another opportunity for Trump to host it in Florida on the sidelines of the G20 in December. The Quad foreign ministers will meet later this month on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Atlanta.
