New Delhi [India], July 18 (ANI): Welcoming Australia's joining the International Solar Alliance (ISA), Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the former's membership will provide a great boost to the alliance.

PM Modi made these remarks during his meeting with Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

The ISA initiative was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris on 30 November 2015 by Prime Minister Modi and former French President Francois Hollande.

The ISA is conceived as a coalition of solar resource rich countries to address their special energy needs and will provide a platform to collaborate on addressing the identified gaps through a common, agreed approach.

Prime Minister Modi and Hollande jointly laid the foundation stone of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Headquarters and inaugurated the interim Secretariat of the ISA in National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gurugram on January 25, last year.

He warmly recalled the successful visit of Australian Prime Minister Turnbull to India in April 2017, and said that the bilateral relationship has deepened a lot since his own visit to Australia in 2014.

Bishop briefed PM Modi on the progress in bilateral relations since the visit of Prime Minister Turnbull to India in April 2017.

The two leaders also discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest.

Bishop also met Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and discussed about deepening regional engagement, defence and security issues.

Earlier, she arrived in New Delhi on a two-day visit aimed at deepening bilateral engagement between the countries in various key sectors.

Australia's High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu, said the visit places emphasis on India as one of Australia's top economic and security partners.

"We are committed to exploring ways to expand our engagement even further," Sidhu said.

"Our countries have a dynamic and growing knowledge partnership, flourishing people-to-people links and converging political, economic and strategic interests. And there is scope for us to do much more together," she added.

Bishop will also deliver the second Indo-Pacific Oration, setting out how Australia and India can work together to build peace, prosperity and a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific. (ANI)


This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI