PM Modi to hold bilaterals with US, Australia, Japan before Quad summit

PM Modi will hold separate bilateral meetings with Japan and Australia on September 23. On September 24, he will hold first bilateral dialogue with US Vice President Kamala Harris and one in physical capacity with President Joe Biden. This will be followed by the much-awaited Quad summit.

Published on: Sep 16, 2021, 07:25:34 IST

By Shishir Gupta, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to hold bilateral meetings with US President Joe Biden on September 24, followed by the meeting of Quad leaders at the White House with focus on Afghanistan, Indo-Pacific, coronavirus, and climate change.

The Quad leaders: Australian PM Scott Morrison, Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, PM Modi and US President Joe Biden.

According to officials based in Washington and New Delhi, PM Modi will first have separate bilateral meetings with comprehensive strategic partners Japan and Australia on September 23. With Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, PM Modi will advance the shared objective of an open, free, prosperous, and rules-based Indo-Pacific region as India steps up its engagement through various initiative in the Indo-Pacific. India has a two plus two dialogues with all the three Quad partners, with the first Indo-Australian dialogue being held in New Delhi on September 11.

On September 24, PM Modi will hold first bilateral dialogue with US Vice President Kamala Harris followed by the first dialogue in physical capacity with President Joe Biden. This will be followed by the much-awaited Quad summit. All the engagements will be held at the White House.

Also Read: China slams upcoming in-person Quad summit in Washington

Just as PM Modi will have bilateral meetings with all the three Quad partners, other leaders are also expected to hold bilateral meetings before converging for the Quad summit. While external affairs minister (EAM) S Jaishankar is leaving for US on the evening of September 20 to attend the UNGA and prepare groundwork for Quad summit, there is no meeting scheduled between Quad foreign ministers.

While PM Modi will deepen bilateral cooperation in political, economic, security and defence related matters with all three leaders of the democratic world, the Quad summit will discuss situation in Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Despite commitments to the US of inclusive regime during Doha process, the Taliban government is full of UN designated terrorists and is exclusive to only the loyal supporters of the Sunni Pashtun Islamist group with no space for either women or minorities. The Taliban government is also working contrary to the UNSC resolution 2593 passed on August 30, 2021.

The Quad is expected to come out with a statement on Indo-Pacific, where the rule of law and United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea will be emphasised upon. The Quad's vision of Indo-Pacific is anchored in the Asean architecture, freedom of navigation, and rejects the nine-dash line claims of China in South China Sea.

The Quad leaders will also deliberate on spread of coronavirus, which has origins in Wuhan, China, and review the production and availability of the vaccines for the world. Climate change will also be on the bilateral as well as Quad agenda with EAM Jaishankar hosting US climate change envoy John Kerry on September 13.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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