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Washington: 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 Thursday 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 manoeuvring 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.
