Sydney: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would travel to Australia next week despite cancellation of the Quad leaders’ meeting. The Quad meeting was scheduled to take place in Sydney on May 24.
The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi also confirmed Modi’s three-nation tour beginning Friday.
PM Modi will visit Hiroshima from May 19 to 21 for the G7 annual summit. From Japan, he will travel to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea where he will co-host the third summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) on May 22 with Prime Minister James Marape.
PM Albanese was responding to a question on whether PM Modi would still come to Sydney. “I am looking forward to welcoming PM Modi,” he said. Albanese added that PM Modi will also have a business meeting and will hold a public event at Homebush at the Olympic site in Sydney.
Biden, Albanese, PM Modi, and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida were to attend the Quad Leaders’ Summit.
But it was cancelled after US President Joe Biden pulled out from the meeting at the last minute citing the domestic debt ceiling crisis, and now all four leaders of the Quad grouping — the US, Japan, India and Australia — are likely to instead meet on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Japan this weekend.
