New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a busy schedule ahead as he will travel to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia in May. The visit will begin with the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where PM Modi will represent India from May 20 to May 2. The formal invitation for the summit will be extended by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his visit to Delhi later this month.
India has been continuously invited or invited to G7 summits since 2019, and this will be the fifth such invitation to an Indian PM. French President Macron extended an invitation for the Biarritz Summit in 2019. In 2020, the then US President Donald Trump was keen to invite India, but the summit could not take place due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, the then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had also invited India to the G7 summit, but PM Modi could not travel due to the second wave of Corona virus. Last year, PM Modi was in Germany to attend the summit at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps.
PM Modi will go to Papua New Guinea after Japan
After his visit to Japan, Modi will travel to Papua New Guinea for the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation Summit (India-Pacific Summit).
The first summit was held in Suva, Fiji in 2014, followed by the second summit in Jaipur, India in 2015.
The Forum brings together 14 Pacific Islands namely Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, which is headed by India. State/Government level.
The summit is seen as a step towards greater cooperation between India and the Pacific Islands where India has been involved in development cooperation.
This will be PM Modi’s first visit to the country, which is the second largest country in the Oceania region after Australia.
It is noteworthy that New Delhi has been helping the country for a long time.
In 2016, the Indian High Commissioner handed over a consignment of 7.2 million doses of anti-retroviral drugs to the PNG government.
India also provided computers and accessories worth US$760,000 to the PNG government during the period 2017-18. This assistance was provided under India’s regional assistance to Pacific Island countries.
The grant-in-aid is a clear indication of India’s commitment to strengthen its relations with PNG and other Pacific Island countries.
Also in 2018, in a gesture of solidarity, the Narendra Modi-led government announced that it would give a grant of US$1 million to PNG. The grant was specifically for relief and rescue operations in the areas affected by the earthquake that struck the country in February 2018.
PM Modi will participate in Quad Summit in Australia
PM Narendra Modi will then conclude his three-nation tour in Australia, where he is to attend the Quad summit from May 23 to 24.
During Australian PM Anthony Albanese’s visit to India earlier this month, he formally invited PM Modi to attend the summit.
Prime Minister Modi had earlier participated in the Quad Leaders Summit in Japan in May 2022 and in the US in 2021.
He also participated in the virtual meeting of the Quad leaders in March 2022.
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD), commonly known as the Quad, is a strategic security dialogue between India, Australia, Japan and the United States.
The expansion of the Quad continues to gain momentum as the four countries announce a number of initiatives aimed at addressing important challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region.