Modi arrives in Sydney, gets warm welcome from Indian diaspora: 'Looking forward...'

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Monday (22) reached Sydney, Australia, for the final leg of his three-nation tour that included Japan and Papua New Guinea.

The leader is scheduled to hold talks with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese and attend a community event where members of the Indian diaspora will give him a grand reception. He was also supposed to take part in the Quad summit but it was cancelled after US president Joe Biden called off his visit to Australia due to some domestic challenges. The leaders instead conducted a meeting in Hiroshima in Japan where the G7 summit was held last weekend.

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Modi tweeted after landing in Sydney where he was welcomed by the officials and the Indian diaspora. He said, "Landed in Sydney to a warm welcome by the Indian community. Looking forward to various programmes over the next two days."

Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of India's ministry of external affairs, said in a tweet after Modi's arrival in Sydney, "Final leg of the three nation tour begins! PM@narendramodi arrives in the vibrant city of Sydney on his second visit to Australia. Two days of constructive engagements with Australian leadership, business community and diaspora members await."

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Ahead of Modi's arrival in the port city, Albanese issued a statement in which he said, “I am honoured to host Prime Minister Modi for an official visit to Australia, after receiving an extremely warm welcome in India earlier this year.”

“Australia and India share a commitment to a stable, secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Together we have an important role to play in supporting this vision,” he added.

Modi was seen interacting with members of the Indian community in Sydney, many of whom also gathered outside a hotel in Sydney to welcome the Indian prime minister.

Modi reached Australia after wrapping up a historic visit to Papua New Guinea where he was conferred with the highest civilian awards by Pacific islands such as Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

He also spoke at the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation summit where he emphasised the need for multilateralism and respecting the sovereignty and integrity of all countries. The summit took place at a time when China is making efforts to enhance it s military and diplomatic influence in the region.

Indian high commissioner to Australia Manpreet Vohra on Monday praised the Australian authorities over their "great responsiveness" on the targeting of Hindu temples by extremist elements and said that he is confident to see a better situation.

In an exclusive interview with Asian News International, the diplomat said, "We are seeing great responsiveness from the Australian authorities to our concerns. We are confident that they will go after those who violate the law and indulge in these hate crimes. I am quite confident that going forward, we will see a better situation."

Responding to whether Modi and Albanese will discuss the issue of attack on Hindu temples in Australia, Vohra said vandalism of Hindu temples has been a concern in India and he has also raised a concern with Albanese when he came to India and India received a response from him as well.

During his visit to India in March, the Australian prime minister had reiterated that Canberra will act with "full force" to prevent attacks against Hindu temples in the country.

(With ANI inputs)