New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on Friday on a six-day visit to three countries - Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia, to attend multilateral summits, including that of the Group of Seven (G7).
According to the external affairs ministry, the prime minister will first visit Hiroshima in Japan from May 19 to 21 to participate in the annual summit of the G7 advanced economies under the Japanese Presidency. He is visiting Japan at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Firstly, PM Modi is scheduled to take part in the G7 summit in Japan, from where he will head to Papua New Guinea. It will be the first visit by an Indian prime minister to Papua New Guinea.
He will co-chair the third Summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) in Papua New Guinea.
On the third leg of his visit prime minister Modi will visit Sydney in Australia where he will hold a bilateral meeting with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.
Previously he was scheduled to participate in the Quad Leaders' Summit in Sydney but on Wednesday Australian Prime Minister Albanese announced the cancellation of Quad after US President postponed his trip to Australia to focus on the debt ceiling negotiations in Washington.
At the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Prime Minister Modi will speak at G7 sessions with partner countries on subjects such as peace, stability and prosperity of a sustainable planet; food, fertiliser and energy security; health; gender equality; climate change and environment; resilient infrastructure; and development cooperation.
The Prime Minister will also hold bilateral meetings with some of the participating leaders on the sidelines of the Summit. In recent years, the economic relationship between Japan and India has steadily expanded and deepened. The volume of trade between the two countries has increased.
Japanese PM Fumio Kishida visited India this March. He arrived in India on March 20 and during his meeting with PM Modi, the two leaders confirmed that India and Japan share the responsibility to maintain and strengthen the international order based on the rule of law. They concurred on the importance of clearly outlining this idea at the G7 and G20 meetings.
The two leaders during a working lunch in Delhi confirmed that the two countries will coordinate closely bilaterally as well as in G4 to achieve concrete results on the Security Council reform, according to an official release.
From Japan, the Prime Minister will travel to Port Moresby in, Papua New Guinea, where he will host the third Summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC III Summit) jointly with Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea James Marape on May 22.
Launched in 2014, the FIPIC involves India and 14 Pacific Island Countries (PICs) - Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Samoa, Vanuatu, Niue, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Cook Islands, Palau, Nauru and the Solomon Islands.
A Ministry of External Affairs release said that Prime Minister Modi will have bilateral engagements in Papua New Guinea, including meetings with Governor-General Sir Bob Dadae and Prime Minister James Marape.
After concluding his visit to Papua New Guinea, PM Modi will travel to Sydney despite the cancellation of the Quad Leaders' meeting. He will arrive in Australia on May 23.
Australian PM Albanese said the leaders of Australia, the US, India and Japan -the Quad grouping- would now likely meet on the sidelines of the G7 in Japan this weekend Australian media network ABC News reported.
"We are in discussions with the Quad leaders over today. We'll make further announcements about that, but Prime Minister Modi would certainly be a very welcome guest here next week," he said on Wednesday.
PM Modi will have a bilateral meeting with his Australian counterpart Albanese on May 24. He will also interact with Australian CEOs and business leaders, and address the Indian diaspora at a community event in Sydney on May 23.
Australian PM Albanese during his recent visit to India in March, earlier this year, said that India and Australia have forged a deeper connection in education, culture, defence and trade. The Australian PM was on an official visit to India from March 8-11. The Australian PM also shared a video showing highlights of his India visit. During the visit, the Australian PM met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi to hold bilateral talks.
