- Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi will have bilateral meetings with leaders of the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) grouping, including US president Joe Biden, during his visit to the US next week besides attending the first in-person meeting of the grouping, the country’s ministry of external affairs (MEA) said on Thursday (16).
“PM (Modi) will participate in the first in-person Quad leaders’ summit in Washington on September 24. On September 25, he will address the general debate of the UN General Assembly at its 76th session. While the PM is in Washington, he will also have a bilateral meeting with President Biden,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said during a press briefing.
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“We also look forward to bilateral meetings with other Quad leaders as well as bilateral meetings with some other leaders while he is in New York on September 25,” he added.
This will be Modi’s seventh visit to the US since becoming the prime minister in 2014 and the first this year since going to Bangladesh in March. The last time he met an American president was in early 2020 when former US president Donald Trump visited India along with his wife Melania. Modi’s last visit to the US happened in September 2019 when he attended the Howdy Modi event in Houston, Texas, along with Trump.
Besides Modi and Biden, Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and his Japanese counterpart Yoshihide Suga will be present at the Quad summit to be held in Washington on September 24.
The four leaders are set to discuss regional issues of shared interest besides reviewing the progress made since their virtual summit held in March, less than two months after Biden took over as the president.
Modi is also scheduled to address the General Debate of the High-Level Segment of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 25 in New York.
The theme for this year’s General Debate is ‘Building Resilience through hope to recover from COVID-19, rebuild sustainably, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people, and revitalise the United Nations’.
