Hiroshima [Japan], May 20: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that India will be willing to host the next Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue meeting in 2024.
“We will be happy to host the Quad summit in India in 2024,” PM Modi said in the opening remarks of the Quad meeting held on the sidelines of a Group of Seven Summit (G-7) meeting in the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
PM Modi was addressing leaders of the US, Australia and Japan, which along with Japan constitute the informal strategic forum called the Quadrilateral Grouping whose primary objective is working for a free, open, prosperous, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.
“Quad will continue to make efforts towards global good, welfare of the people, prosperity and peace,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
The forum traces its genesis to 2004, when the four countries came together to coordinate relief operations in the aftermath of the tsunami.
In 2007, the group again met on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) sidelines. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first to pitch the idea for the formation of Quad in 2007.
Earlier this week, the planned summit of Quad leaders from the US, India, Australia, and Japan in Sydney was cancelled after US President Biden withdrew from his visit due to ongoing debt limit talks in Washington.
However, the White on Friday (local time) agreed to hold the summit in Japan’s Hiroshima.
“After President Biden had to postpone his trip to Australia, the Quad leaders agreed that they would hold their summit in Hiroshima to ensure that the four leaders could come together to mark the Quad’s progress over the past year. So tomorrow, in addition to the G7, President Biden will participate in the third in-person Quad Leaders’ meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India,” read a statement by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Biden scrapped his planned trip to Sydney as well as a historic visit to Papua New Guinea. The decision — which prompted Albanese to cancel the scheduled Quad summit — was seen as a self-inflicted blow to hopes of a more visible US presence in the Indo-Pacific amid its competition with China in the region.
US President Biden thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida for agreeing to participate in the Quad meeting today on the sidelines of the G7 summit here.
The White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement on Friday (local time) said that Quad leaders agreed to hold their summit in Hiroshima to ensure that the four leaders could come together to mark the Quad’s progress over the past year.
“Along with sharing strategic assessments, the leaders will welcome new forms of Quad cooperation on secure digital technology, submarine cables, infrastructure capacity building, and maritime awareness,” the statement added. (AGENCIES)
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