Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave on May 19 for a three-nation visit covering Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia. In Japan, Mr. Modi will participate in the G-7 summit where India is a guest country which will be followed by his visit to Papua New Guinea where he will jointly lead the summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC).
Briefing reporters on the engagements, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said on May 18 that India is planning to hold a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) on the sidelines of the G-7 meeting in Japan.
“India’s regular participation at the G-7 summits clearly points to increasing recognition that India should be a part of any serious effort to resolve global challenges including those of peace, security, development and environment preservation,” said Mr. Kwatra announcing the structure of India’s engagement at the G-7 meeting that will be held in Hiroshima where the leaders will visit the peace memorial of the city that pays tribute to the victims of the first use of atomic weapon in the history of the world.
PM Modi will start his engagements in Japan by unveiling a bust of Mahatma Gandhi in Hiroshima.
On the sidelines of the G-7 summit, Mr. Modi is expected to be joined by President Joe Biden of the U.S., Australian PM Antony Albanese and Japanese PM Kishida for a special meeting of the Quad leaders. The meeting was earlier scheduled to take place in Australia on May 24 but was cancelled soon after President Biden called off his Australia visit.
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After Hiroshima, PM Modi will proceed to Papua New Guinea where he will inaugurate the 3 rd summit of the Forum for India Pacific Islands Cooperation on May 22.
India has been supporting a number of programmes in the member countries of the FIPIC in the fields of sustainable development, solar energy and health. The first meeting of FIPIC took place in Fiji in 2014 where all 14 member nations of FIPIC had participated. The second meeting took place in Jaipur in 2015.
The importance of the FIPIC has been increasing in view of the adoption of the Indo-Pacific strategy by India and other major western partners like the U.S. Prime Minister Modi will hold his bilateral meetings with the leaders of the FIPIC members during his stay in Papua New Guinea. He will call on the Governor-General of the island nation after which he will hold a meeting with Prime Minister James Marape.
During his stay in Papua New Guinea, PM Modi will also meet his counterpart from New Zealand Chris Hipkins, said Mr. Kwatra. The 14 members of the FIPIC include Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
In the third part of his six-day visit, Mr. Modi will land in Sydney where he will hold bilateral talks with Australia’s PM Albanese. Mr. Kwatra announced that Mr. Modi will address a meeting of diaspora Indians in Sydney where he will be joined by Mr. Albanese.
The two leaders had earlier held a public event in Gandhinagar when Mr. Albanese and Mr. Modi had inaugurated a cricket Test match. India and Australia are in talks to upgrade the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) to the level of a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. Mr. Modi will interact with Australian CEOs and business leaders during his visit.