india's prime minister narendra modi has a hectic week ahead he will have 40 hours for 23 engagements all the high stakes meetings will be held across japan the indian prime minister will be attending the court summit on tuesday that is on the 24th of may and separate bilateral meetings are also scheduled with the group leaders that is u.s president joe biden japanese prime minister fumio kishida and the incoming australian prime minister elect anthony albanese on monday morning arrangements are in place to have these people sworn in as members of my team [Applause] to enable penny and i to attend the important quad leaders meeting in tokyo with president biden prime minister kishida and prime minister modi india's foreign secretary vinay kwatra held a press conference he gave details about the aim of this crucial visit during the court summit leaders will review the progress of quad initiatives they will identify new areas of cooperation japanese prime minister's india visit in march saw substantial outcomes indian prime minister will interact with the indian diaspora there will also be a special session on the sidelines of the world health organizations assembly apart from participating in the court summit prime minister would also hold bilateral meetings with the president of the us prime minister of japan and with prime minister of australia the prime minister would also engage with the japanese business community and the indian diaspora during his stay in tokyo let me first begin with the court leader summit as you all know court cooperation is anchored in the shared values and commitment to the principles of democracy international law and rules-based international order as also the vision for a free open and inclusive indo-pacific since its first summit quad has been working to implement a positive and constructive agenda with a strong focus on enabling peace prosperity and stability in the indo-pacific region similar to the agenda for most foreign meetings taking place around the world the russia ukraine war is likely to dominate the talks the bloc did meet on 2nd of march this year just six days after russia chose to invade ukraine but the war was at a very premature stage at that point months later countries have shaped their stance and policies around it the quad group is expected to showcase a united front against russia's brutalities but this puts india in a tricky situation because unlike india the other three countries have sided with ukraine they have penalized russia with sanctions and burned all bridges with the country however india has chosen a different path it has chosen dialogue over criticism so it will be interesting to see if the four countries will manage to come on the same page apart from this global issue there is a regional crisis that is bothering the group and that is china the country is rapidly becoming more hostile across the indo-pacific russia's invasion of ukraine has been seen as a wake-up call for taiwan which china claims as its own territory the united states along with its allies in asia have stood against china's encroachment efforts so a plan for taiwan's military emergency is also on the cards and for more on this joining us from the ground is managing editor paul kishama welcome to the broadcast and it's good to see you all eyes will be on prime minister modi as he is expected to join hans with other members to strengthen the economic and also energy corporation in order to contain the global fallout from russian invasion of ukraine palki how is that likely to play out be interesting to see how india balances uh uh its convergences and divergences as this as they say in in diplomacy there's a lot that that goes for the quad grouping like you said energy partnership economic partnership uh but for many years eric it was said that the quad has an identity crisis is it the asian nato is it the asian red cross or is it something in between and has quad been able to achieve any of its security goals while a lot of water has uh passed under the bridge and in the last two years especially a lot of progress has been made with this being the fourth meeting two virtual meetings and uh this is the second in person meeting we had one last year in september in washington dc and now in tokyo so so there is definitely intent but they do not even spell out the clear security concerns so they haven't done so yet uh how will it play out this time it remains to be seen we understand that they are going to announce some sort of a framework where they have satellite tracking of illegal fishing uh in in in the waters in this region and that is a direct attempt to take on china because china is believed to be the biggest perpetrator of illegal fishing uh which has threatened many traditional livelihoods and economies in the region so that will be a message to china certainly japan remains very clear on the threat posed by china uh to its territorial integrity the us is very very clear about this the australian government has been raising concerns about china's new deal with the solomon islands and india of course uh uh is is still logged in a border standoff with china so all four countries uh understand and uh agree that this is a threat that needs to be addressed uh but will they sound spell it out and will they do something about it uh is the big question ukraine will certainly feature in the conversation and that is where india will have to do a balancing act to try and ensure that uh the other countries uh do not hijack sort of business the quad agenda this time and i think there is now a clear understanding among india's strategic partners that india is not going to join the sanctions regime against russia let's talk more about the indo-pacific now when it comes to dealing with china what is the quad likely to do to strengthen the maritime and also energy security architecture especially when it comes to global supply chains well they will have to build alternatives and while there are many frameworks and many uh bureaucratic engagements that do take place i think uh a stronger clearer message needs to be sent out that this uh you know all the leaders whenever they've met they've insisted that this is not an anti-china grouping and that's how china sees it so when they talk about vaccine diplomacy when they talk about strengthening supply chains the only way to do it is to strengthen alternatives to ensure that these smaller countries that fall into the chinese debt trap uh do not do so so what are the what are the alternatives that they have uh look at the situation in sri lanka i'm sure that will come up in the discussions the security situation in afghanistan the the the post-coup uh situation in myanmar so these are all security challenges in the region north korea's nuclear ambitions how can the quad countries come together and ensure that they provide alternatives to all these countries just to to to steer out of china's sphere of influence so to speak live from tokyo japan we'll have to leave it there we are managing editor panki sharma thank you weon is now available in your country download the app now and get all the news on the move
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