Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Tokyo, Japan, on a two-day visit to attend the four-member Quad summit and hold bilateral meets with US President Joe Biden and the new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was elected on Saturday.
In a statement on his upcoming visit, Modi said he will visit Japan at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “In March 2022, I had the pleasure of hosting Prime Minister Kishida for the 14th India-Japan Annual Summit. During my visit to Tokyo, I look forward to continuing our conversation further, with an aim to strengthen the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership”, Modi said in his statement.
At the invitation of PM @kishida230 of Japan, PM @narendramodi will leave for Tokyo tonight for the next Quad Leaders’ Summit.
Catch a glimpse of what’s in store. pic.twitter.com/Ed3gKTonfD
— Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) May 22, 2022
He added that he will also participate in the second in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit, which will look at the progress made by the four-member grouping, adding that the leaders will also exchange views about developments in the Indo-Pacific region and other global issues.
Speaking about his bilateral engagements in Tokyo, the Indian Prime Minister said: “I will hold a bilateral meeting with President Joseph Biden, where we will discuss further consolidation of our multi-faceted bilateral relations with the US. The newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be joining the Quad Leaders’ Summit for the first time. I look forward to a bilateral meeting with him during which the multifaceted cooperation between India and Australia under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and regional and global issues of mutual interest will be discussed”.
Highlighting the special relations that exist between India and Japan, which have acquired a distinct hue due to China’s muscle flexing in the Indo-Pacific region, Modi said: “Economic cooperation between India and Japan is an important aspect of our Special Strategic and Global Partnership. During the March Summit, PM Kishida and I had announced our intention to realize JPY 5 trillion in public and private investment and financing over the next five years from Japan to India”.
Besides the bilateral engagements with Quad leaders, Modi will also meet with various Japanese businesses to strengthen economic linkages between the two nations. Japan is home to nearly 40,000 Indians who cement the people-to-people relations between the two nations.
Japanese news agency Kyodo News reports that the Quad leaders have “agreed to step up the provision of COVID-19 vaccines to the international community, when they hold a summit meeting next week”. Kyodo quoted a Japanese foreign ministry official, saying that the leaders will discuss improving COVID-19 vaccine delivery and seek to push the ‘last one mile support’ to provide cold chain equipment for the vaccines.
The four nations will focus on countering China’s influence in developing countries with a set of their own initiatives on vaccines, climate change, building infrastructure and improving various kinds of connectivity.
The US and Japan also intend to pursue further the concept of a Free and Open and Indo-Pacific (FOIP), with a view to ensuring that trading sea routes in the vast expanse of the Indo-Pacific region—stretching from east Africa to west Pacific remain open and without coercion. The FOIP will try to restrict Chinese activities in the South China Sea and in the region around the ten-member bloc of south-east Asian nations.
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