Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that his presence in the G7 Summit in Hiroshima is of special significance for India as it comes at a time when the country holding the G20 Presidency.
“I look forward to exchanging views with the G7 countries and other invited partners on the challenges facing the world and the need to tackle them together. I will also hold bilateral meetings with some of the leaders attending the G7 Summit in Hiroshima,” Modi said in his departure statement on Friday ahead of his next visit. Japan, Papua New Guinea And Australia. Mr. Modi attended the Summit at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The G7 is an informal grouping of leading industrialized democracies including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. The G7 summit will take place on May 20-21.
Modi’s visit to Hiroshima is significant because Jawaharlal Nehru was the last Indian Prime Minister to visit the city. Nehru visited the city in 1957, many years after it was devastated by the atomic bombing in 1945.
Diplomatically, this is considered a sensitive visit because India is one of the few countries that has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Given the country’s clean record as a responsible nuclear power and its no-first-use policy, India has no reason to be upset, an official said.
After Japan, Mr. Modi will visit Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, where he will co-host the 3rd Summit of the Forum on Indo-Pacific Cooperation (FIPIC) with James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, on May 22.
“I am grateful that all 14 Pacific Island States (PICs) have accepted the invitation to attend this important Summit. FIPIC was launched during my visit to Fiji in 2014 and I look forward to engaging with PIC leaders on issues that bind us together like climate change and sustainable development, capacity building and training, health and well-being, infrastructure and the economy. development,” he said.
Modi will then travel to Sydney, Australia, at the invitation of his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese.
“I look forward to our bilateral meeting, which will be an opportunity to reassess our bilateral relationship and follow the first India-Australia Annual Summit to be held in New Delhi. in March of this year,” he said.
Mr. Modi will also interact with Australian CEOs and business leaders, and meet the Indian community in Sydney at a special event.
The meeting of the leaders of the Quad countries, including the US, Japan, India and Australia, was originally scheduled in Sydney next week, has been postponed when US President Joe Biden pulled out of it because of debt ceiling negotiations in Washington.
