Modi, Morrison discuss Quad, strategic alliance
WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison in Washington on Thursday, the first of several high-profile in-person meetings with world leaders over the next two days, after beginning the day with discussions with the chief executives of several key American companies.
Among the issues discussed by the two leaders were regional and global developments, and the bilateral cooperation between the two sides in areas related to Covid-19, trade, defence and clean energy.
“Advancing friendship with Australia. PM Scott Morrison held talks with PM Narendra Modi. They discussed a wide range of subjects aimed at deepening economic and people-topeople linkages between India and Australia,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a tweet late on Thursday.
The two are scheduled to be part of the first in-person meeting of the Quad partners on Friday at the White House where they will be joined by US President Joe Biden, the summit’s host, and Japan’s Yoshihide Suga.
A source familiar with the planning of the Prime Minister’s visit and his bilateral meetings described India-australia ties as an “important relationship (which) is developing very quickly” and said a meeting of the two leaders had been “long overdue”.
Morrison was first scheduled to visit India in January of 2020 but he called it off in view of devastating wildfires in Australia. He was next scheduled to go to India in March but had to call it off again in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Modi on Thursday was scheduled to meet US Vice President Kamala Harris at the White
House.
In the morning, Modi opened his three-day visit to the United States on Thursday with back-toback meetings with CEOS of five top American companies spanning, IT, finance, defence and renewable energy sectors.
Two of these CEOS are of Indian descent: Vivek Lall of the defence giant General Atomics and Shantanu Narayen of Adobe.
“We talked about an incredible opportunity to advance the industry not only domestically in India but India as an export(er) of technology, everything about the digital transformation, enabled by 5G combined with the design in India,” said Cristiano Amon, CEO of IT giant Qualcomm, after the meeting. “We talked about semiconductors which is kind of an important I think topic of conversation. And we talked about the opportunity to continue to build an incredible mobile ecosystem that is developing in India.”
As a newcomer to the field of semiconductor, India has been aggressively wooing manufacturers to set up shop there. Securing semiconductor supply chain is expected to be a key issue for discussion on Friday at the Quad summit.
Other CEOS who met the Prime Minister were Mark Widmar of First Solar, which is a manufacturer of solar panels; Stephen A. Schwarzman of Blackstone, a global investment management company.
Widmar said after the meeting that India has struck “really strong balance between industrial policy as well as trade policy” which makes it an ideal opportunity for companies like his “to establish manufacturing in India”.
Discussions with Narayen focussed on “leveraging technology to provide smart education to youngsters and enhance research”, the Prime Minister’s Office wrote in a tweet, adding, “They also discussed the vibrant start-up sector in India, powered by the Indian youth.”
Previewing these meeting, a person involved in the meeting said on Wednesday that these “are CEOS that represent very large corporate interests, companies that have a particular expertise that have invested in India and have the potential to invest significantly in India.”