WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Top leaders of the Quadrilateral, or Quad, comprising India, US, Australia and Japan will meet in Japan in the second half of May. US President Joe Biden would travel to South Korea and Japan from May 20 to 24 and attend the Quad summit in Tokyo, during which he would also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, adding that details of the meeting were awaited. The last meeting of the top Quad leadership was held in September last year. While Prime Minister Modi, Biden and Australia PM Scott Morrison have attended Quad meetings together, Japanese PM Kishida Fumio would be making his maiden appearance at the summit.
Tag: Scott Morrison
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Australian PM Scott Morrison calls election for May 21
Canberra (TIP): Australia’s PM Scott Morrison has called for a May 21 election that will be fought on issues, including Chinese economic coercion, climate change and the Covid pandemic. Morrison on April 12 advised Governor-General David Hurley as representative of Australia’s head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, to set the election date.
Morrison’s conservative coalition is seeking a fourth three-year term. The date is the latest available to him. He urged voters to stick with a government that delivered one of the lowest pandemic death tolls of any advanced economy rather than risk the opposition Labor Party. — AP
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PM Modi discusses bilateral, regional, global issues with Australia’s Morrison
WASHINGTON, DC (TIP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison here ahead of the first in-person Quad meeting to be hosted by US President Joe Biden and discussed a broad range of issues of bilateral, regional and global importance, including the Indo-Pacific. The meeting between Modi and Morrison on Friday, September 24, came a week after they spoke over phone and reviewed the rapid progress in the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, including through the recent ‘two-plus-two’ dialogue, and exchanged views on regional developments and the forthcoming Quad meeting. This was the first in-person meeting between the two leaders in the post-pandemic period. “They reviewed progress since the last leader’s summit that was held virtually in June 2020, and they resolved to continue their close partnership and cooperation for the mutual wellbeing of both sides,” Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told reporters while details of the meeting. The last bilateral meeting was the Leaders’ Virtual Summit held on June 4 last year when the Strategic Partnership between India and Australia was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
During the meeting here, Modi and Morrison discussed a broad range of issues of bilateral, regional and global importance, it said.
The Prime Ministers “resolved to continue close cooperation for mutual well-being and towards advancing their shared objective of an open, free, prosperous and rules-based Indo-Pacific region,” the MEA said.
India, the US and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China’s rising military maneuvering in the region.
China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea.
“Great to meet with my good friend and a great friend of Australia, Indian PM Narendra Modi during my visit to the US,” Morrison tweeted.
“A wide-ranging and productive discussion ahead of the first in-person Quad meeting as we look to further deepen the partnership between our two countries,” Morrison said.
Prime Minister Modi in a tweet said, ”It is always wonderful to interact with my good friend, PM @ScottMorrisonMP. We had wide-ranging deliberations on strengthening cooperation in the fields of commerce, trade, energy and more.” According to the MEA statement, in their meeting, Modi and Morrison reviewed the ongoing negotiations on a bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and welcomed the visit to India by former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott as Morrison’s Special Trade Envoy for India and noted the commitment of both sides to achieve an early harvest announcement on an interim agreement by December 2021. They underlined the need for the international community to address the issue of climate change on an urgent basis as Prime Minister Modi highlighted the need for a broader dialogue on environment protection, it said, adding that both the leaders also discussed possibilities of providing clean technologies.
Modi and Morrison agreed that “as two vibrant democracies in the region, the two countries needed to work closer together to overcome the challenges in the post-pandemic world, inter alia to enhance supply chain resilience,” the MEA said.
“Both leaders lauded the immense contribution of the Indian diaspora to Australia’s economy and society, and discussed ways to enhance people to people ties,” the statement added.
Prime Minister Modi also invited Morrison to visit India.
“The Prime Minister mentioned that the Indian community was very well looked after during the COVID crisis in Australia. He especially mentioned that to the Prime Minister and there was an appreciation of the contribution of the Indian diaspora in Australia,” Shringla said.
Earlier, Office of Prime Minister Modi said on Twitter: “Advancing friendship with Australia. PM @ScottMorrisonMP held talks with PM @narendramodi. They discussed a wide range of subjects aimed at deepening economic and people-to-people linkages between India and Australia.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi termed the meeting as “another chapter in our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Australia”.
“Another chapter in our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Australia! PM @narendramodi and @ScottMorrisonMP met today. Discussed regional & global developments as well as ongoing bilateral cooperation in areas related to Covid-19, trade, defense, clean energy & more,” Bagchi said on Twitter.
The meeting assumes significance as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on September 11 held the ‘two-plus-two’ talks in New Delhi with their Australian counterparts Marise Payne and Peter Dutton.
It was the first meeting between the prime ministers of India and Australia since the AUKUS (Australia, the UK and the US) security partnership was unveiled last week by US President Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Morrison.
In response to a question, Shringla said that Prime Minister Morrison did briefly mention rationale from the Australian side in seeking to initiate the AUKUS Alliance.
“He felt that the technology that they received was appropriate and there was a brief discussion in that regard,” he said.
In a tweet, the prime minister’s office described it as advancing friendship with Australia. “They discussed a wide range of subjects aimed at deepening economic and people-to-people linkages between India and Australia,” the PMO tweeted. The AUKUS partnership, seen as an effort to counter China in the Indo-Pacific, will allow the US and the UK to provide Australia with the technology to develop nuclear-powered submarines for the first time.
Australia said its decision to join a security alliance with the US and the UK is aimed at developing capabilities that can contribute along with India and other countries in deterring behavior that threatens the peace and security in the Indo-Pacific.
In the first reaction from India on the contentious alliance, Shringla on Tuesday said that the new security agreement among the US, the UK and Australia is neither relevant to the Quad nor will have any impact on its functioning, and they are not groupings of a similar nature.
Shringla said while the AUKUS is a security alliance among the three countries, the Quad is a plurilateral grouping with a vision for a free, open, transparent and inclusive Indo-Pacific.
The Quad comprises India, the US, Japan and Australia.
Visit www.theindianpanorama.news for more stories on PM Modi’s US visit.
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Australia offers more aid, refuses to lift ban on its stranded citizens
NEW DELHI / NEW YORK (TIP): Australian PM Scott Morrison offered all help during a conversation with PM Narendra Modi but did not relent on a travel ban that has stranded at least 9,000 Australians in India, including cricketers, who had come to participate in the now-suspended Indian Premier League.
During his telephonic conversation with Scott Morrison, May 7, PM Narendra Modi conveyed his appreciation for the prompt and generous support extended by Australia for India’s fight against the second Covid wave, said a PMO statement. The two leaders agreed on the need to ensure an affordable and equitable access to vaccines and medicines for containing Covid-19 globally, it said.
The Australian government, for the first time has imposed a temporary ban on its citizens from returning home if they have spent time in India up to 14 days before flying back. Those who attempt to return via third countries will be prosecuted with five years of imprisonment or a fine of nearly $ 50,000. During his telephonic conversation with Morrison, the PM conveyed his appreciation for the prompt and generous support extended by Australia for India’s fight against the second Covid wave, said a Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) statement.
The two leaders agreed on the need to ensure an affordable and equitable access to vaccines and medicines for containing Covid-19 globally, it said. “We agreed on the importance of ensuring affordable and equitable access to vaccines and medicines, and discussed possible initiatives in this regard,” said the PM.