PM Modi leaves for US today, to hold Biden talks on Friday
New Delhi, Sept 22 : The recently-announced United States-United Kingdom-Australia pact (AUKUS) is a three-nation security alliance, unlike the four-nation Quad which is a grouping that stands for freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region, and “AUKUS” was not relevant to the Quad and will have no impact on it, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said Tuesday at an external affairs ministry special briefing ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US to participate in the Quad Summit at the White House.
He said India was “not a party to AUKUS” and termed as “hypothetical” a question on what New Delhi would do if it received an invitation to join it.
The four-nation Quad comprises the US, Australia, India and Japan, with the foreign secretary saying the grouping will “do whatever it takes” to achieve its objectives of free and open navigation in the Indo-Pacific.
Prime Minister Modi will leave New Delhi for the United States on Wednesday morning and will later participate in a Global Summit on the Covid-19 pandemic hosted by US President Joe Biden that begins on Wednesday.
The PM will be leading a high-level delegation, including external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and national security adviser Ajit Doval, as well as senior officials including the FS. But the highlight of Mr Modi’s visit begins on Friday (September 24) when he will participate in the much-awaited bilateral meeting with the US President, the first in-person meeting between the two leaders after Mr Biden entered the White House in January this year.
Discussions on the situation in Afghanistan after the US military withdrawal and the Taliban takeover, efforts to combat radicalism and cross-border terrorism as well as dismantling of terror networks, strengthening of defence ties including operationalisation of the “foundational” agreements inked in recent years, boosting of trade ties, discussions on clean energies and new technologies, and reform of the global multilateral system and the UN will be the key issues of interest during the bilateral meeting. Mr Modi will also meet US vice-president Kamala Devi Harris for their first in-person interaction and will also meet CEOs of top American companies during his visit.
The first-ever in-person Quad summit will also take place at the White House on Friday, during which Mr Modi, President Biden, Australian PM Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga will hold talks on issues including the earlier-announced Quad Vaccine Partnership and the situation in the Indo-Pacific region at a time when Chinese military and economic assertiveness is growing in the region.
Mr Modi is also expected to separately hold bilateral meetings with the Australian and Japanese PMs. Mr Shringla said the summit would “consolidate Quad force for the global good”, even as he made it clear that the Malabar naval exercises are not a part of the Quad arrangement.
Asked about the future acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines by Australia as part of the AUKUS pact, the FS said he had seen reports on the Australians saying that these submarines would not be armed with nuclear weapons.
On Saturday, Mr Modi will address the UN General Assembly and speak on issues such as “building resilience through hope”, sustainability, needs of the planet and the need to revitalise the United Nations before returning to New Delhi on Sunday.
New Delhi is also hoping that its good work in its ongoing two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council will strengthen its claims for a permanent seat at the Security Council in future.
-The Asian Age
