NEW DELHHI: Beginning on Friday, May 19, Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi is going for six days to Japan, Papua New Guinea, and Australia to take part in three significant international meetings, including the Group of Seven (G7) and the Quad.

Over 40 engagements have been scheduled for Prime Minister Modi during his three-nation trip, said the officials. They added that he will meet with over two dozen foreign leaders bilaterally and at summits.

During the first leg of his journey, Modi will spend most of his time in Hiroshima, where he will attend the annual summit of the G7 advanced economies and deliver a speech on issues including global food, fertiliser, and energy security.

From Japan, Modi will fly to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, where he and Prime Minister James Marape will co-host the third summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) on May 22.

PM will go to Australia for the third and last leg of his journey, where he will meet with Anthony Albanese and speak at a diaspora event on May 23. Originally slated to take place in Sydney, the Quad Summit will now be held in Hiroshima as Biden postponed his trip to Australia to concentrate on important debt-ceiling negotiations in Washington.

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra stated at a media briefing that "there are several deliverables which we are expecting to come out of it" and that "all that would be showcased when the four leaders meet in Hiroshima."

India's consistent attendance at the G7 meetings,  shows that it is becoming increasingly acknowledged that it should be a part of any meaningful attempt to address global concerns, particularly those of peace, security, and development. This is even more important in light of our current G20 leadership and our specific initiatives to give our fellow members of the global south their interests and concerns priority, he said.

The G7 meeting is being held in Japan since it is the country now in charge of the influential alliance. At the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, Modi is visiting that nation. Nuclear disarmament, economic security, regional challenges, climate change, food security, and health will all be on the G7 summit's general agenda.

India's participation in the summit will be divided into two formal sessions on May 20 and another on May 21. Food, health, development, and gender equality would be the topics of the first session; climate, energy, and the environment would be the topics of the second; and the theme of the third session would be "a peaceful, stable, and prosperous world."

In response to a query on India's stance on the conflict in Ukraine, Kwatra cited Modi's declaration to Russian President Vladimir Putin in September of last year that the world is not in a time of war. Kwatra recalled that Modi made it abundantly clear that this is not a time for violence and that negotiations and diplomacy must be used to end the crisis.

In terms of this clash, he stated, "That is the fundamental underpinning on which our political positioning and the pursuit of our economic interests and other objectives is founded.

The foreign secretary mentioned that Modi will inaugurate a bust of Mahatma Gandhi in Hiroshima. On the margins of the G7 conference in Hiroshima, he claimed, the prime minister will also meet with a number of leaders in bilateral settings. However, he said that the sessions' specifics were still being worked out. Officials also said that Modi will speak to thousands of people from the Indian diaspora as well as Albanese in Sydney. The festival will include several different aspects, including diaspora, trade, and culture.

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