Ahead Of First In-Person Quad Summit In US, PM Modi Holds Bilateral Meetings With Japanese, Australian Counterparts

Ahead of the first in-person Quad summit in the United States, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral meetings with his Australian and Japanese counterparts in Washington DC on Thursday (23 September).

During the meeting between PM Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, both leaders discussed a broad range of issues of bilateral, regional and global importance.

The last bilateral meeting between PM Modi and Australian PM Morrison was the Leaders’ Virtual Summit held on 4 June last year, when the Strategic Partnership between India and Australia was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

In their latest meeting, both the leaders reviewed the progress achieved since the Leaders’ Virtual Summit in June 2020 under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and 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 PMO said in a release.

"They expressed satisfaction at the ongoing negotiations on a bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). In that context, they welcomed the visit to India by former Australian Prime Minister Mr. Tony Abbott as PM Scott 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," the PMO said.

Later in the day, PM Modi also held a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart Suga Yoshihide.

PM Modi thanked Japanese PM Suga for his personal commitment and leadership, both as Prime Minister and Chief Cabinet Secretary earlier, in enabling great advances in the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership over the last few years, an official release said.

PM Modi also congratulated his Japanese counterpart for successfully hosting the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games in the midst of a global pandemic.

"The two Prime Ministers reviewed the multi-faceted relationship between the two countries and exchanged views on recent global and regional developments, including in Afghanistan. They reaffirmed their commitment towards a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. They agreed to enhance bilateral security and defence cooperation, including in the area of defence equipment and technologies," the release said.

Both the leaders welcomed the launch of the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) between India, Japan and Australia earlier this year as a collaborative mechanism to enable resilient, diversified and trustworthy supply chains.

PM Modi highlighted the need to develop bilateral partnerships in manufacturing, MSME and skill development.

Japanese PM Suga informed PM Modi that in order to operationalise the Specified Skilled workers (SSW) agreement which was signed earlier this year, the Japanese side would be undertaking skill and language tests in India from early 2022.

The two leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to advance efforts to facilitate the smooth and timely implementation of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project.