Quad Leaders To Meet In Japan After Biden Cancels Australia Trip

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said the Quad leaders will go ahead with the agenda it was the decided for the meeting at Canberra.

(L-R) Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Source : Getty

New Delhi: The four leaders of the Quad countries - the US, India, Japan and Australia - will be holding their next summit in Japan on the margins of the G7 meeting, according to Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra. 

Addressing the media on the eve Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-leg visit to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia, Kwatra said, "The Quad Summit will now take place in Hiroshima, Japan, as all four leaders will be there at the same place for the same conference". 

"There's a change only in venue but not in the main agenda. Leaders will go ahead with the agenda it was the decided for the meeting at Canberra," said Kwatra. 

He added, "They will take a good stock of the situation and build further on that. A lot of preparation has gone on. We are expecting several deliverables to come out from this meeting."

READ | No Change In PM Modi's Travel Plans While Biden Calls Off Trips To Australia, Papua New Guinea

The Quad Summit was earlier scheduled to take place in Australia but it got cancelled owing to US President Joe Biden's change in travel plans. The White House announced earlier this week that Biden will not be undertaking the trip to Australia owing to a growing debt crisis back home. 

PM Modi will be leaving for Japan on May 19. He will travel to Japan first where he will address the Summit meeting of Group of Seven, or G-7. Thereafter he will travel to PNG and finally Australia. 

Although India is not a member of the G-7, Modi has been invited to speak at the meet by Japanese PM Kishida Fumio. Japan is currently the G-7 chair. 

During the visit to Port Moresby, Modi will be holding the 3rd Summit of the Forum for India–Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC III Summit) jointly with PM of Papua New Guinea James Marape on May 22.