Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With US President Joe Biden stuck at home because of the debt ceiling crisis, the crucial meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) is being shifted from Sydney (Australia) to Hiroshima (Japan) where he will interact with leaders of India, Japan, and Australia on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G-7) Summit from May 19 to 21.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend both the G-7 Summit and the QUAD meeting. Thereafter, he will attend the Indo-Pacific Forum meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and then hold a bilateral summit with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese.
A major takeaway from Hiroshima is expected to be an MoU between the US, India, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE on regional integration of the Middle East with road and infrastructure as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). These four nations have reportedly decided to intensify diplomacy to bring peace and security to the Middle East and launch counter-radicalization measures.
The decision to this effect was taken on May 7 in a meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Ruler of UAE Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and his Indian counterpart Advisor Ajit Doval.
According to the media reports, the QUAD’s Hiroshima meeting could open new avenues of cooperation between the four democracies. They will deliberate on issues like China sending his special envoy to resolve the Ukraine conflict, the rapid expansion of the PLA’s Navy, the growing Chinese diplomatic role in global issues like Saudi-Iran affairs, and the Bangladesh-Myanmar resolution on Rohingyas.
PM Modi’s is the first visit to Hiroshima by an Indian PM after India conducted nuclear tests in Pokhran in 1974. Earlier, in 1954, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had visited the Japanese city, which suffered much because of the atomic bomb attack in 1945. PM Modi will join the G-7 leaders when they visit the Peace Memorial Park, dedicated to the victims and survivors of the attack.
Japanese PM Fumio Kishida hails from Hiroshima, and his constituency is located in central Hiroshima city. He is hoping to use the QUAD Summit to pitch his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons, amid concern that Russia could use such weapons in its ongoing war in Ukraine.
India is among the few countries which have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Besides India, which holds the G-20 presidency this year, the G-7–comprising Japan, Italy, Canada, France, the US, the UK, and Germany — has also invited the EU, Australia, Brazil, Comoros (African Union chair), the Cook Islands (Pacific Islands Forum chair), Indonesia (the ASEAN chair), South Korea and Vietnam as invitees to the outreach session. The UN, IMF, World Bank, WHO, and WTO will also attend the summit.
PM Modi is likely to hold bilateral talks with some of the leaders of 12 countries of the G-20 attending the G-7 Summit’s outreach session.
By inviting India to G-7 Summit, Japan has tried to portray New Delhi as a representative of the Global South, comprising about 120 developing and under-developed countries, the media reported.
Tokyo also wants to use the Hiroshima Summit to demonstrate G-7’s determination to uphold the international order based on the rule of law, firmly rejecting any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force or the threat to use nuclear weapons, as Russia has done in Ukraine, or the use of nuclear weapons.
The Japanese agenda note said that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is a challenge to the rules-based international order, and the G-7 has responded in a united manner. “The G7 will continue to strongly promote sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine,” it said.
After Japan, PM Modi will travel to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, where he will co-host the third summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) with Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape, on May 22.
Launched in 2014, FIPIC includes India and 14 Pacific Island Countries — Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Samoa, Vanuatu, Niue, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Cook Islands, Palau, Nauru, and Solomon Islands. This will be the first visit by an Indian PM to Papua New Guinea.