Sydney Quad Summit Cancelled; PM Modi May Still Visit Australia

Australia on Wednesday canceled the upcoming Quad summit in Sydney. This decision was taken as US President Joe Biden announced the postponement of his visit due to debt ceiling negotiations in Washington. Australia, India, Japan, and the US are members of Quad.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the leaders of four countries would instead meet at the G7 summit in Japan this weekend. “The Quad leaders’ meeting will not be going ahead in Sydney next week. We, though, will be having that discussion between Quad leaders in Japan,” he told reporters at a press conference.

India and Australia are not members of the G7 group. However, they have been invited to attend the summit in Hiroshima, Japan from May 19 to May 21.

“I thank (Japanese) Prime Minister (Fumio) Kishida for his invitation for me to attend the G7 and it is appropriate that we talk, the Australian Prime Minister said.

Anthony Albanese said a bilateral programme in Sydney with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to go ahead next week. The Australian Prime Minister on Wednesday said that it is still possible that his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will visit Sydney next week.

Modi is scheduled to travel to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia this month. “Prime Minister Modi has a bilateral program that is organised, so I’m certain that he will be here”, Albanese said in a statement.

More than 20,000 members of the Indian diaspora have registered so far for the grand community reception organised for Modi in Sydney during his visit to Australia on May 23.