Trilateral On G20 Sidelines To Firm Up Indo-Pacific Policies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump and Japanese premier Shinzo Abe will hold their first trilateral meeting this week on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina. Held in the backdrop of rising US-China tensions, the meeting will provide an opportunity for all three nations to cement their Indo-Pacific policies.

The trilateral, which would be an expansion of the bilateral meeting between Trump and Abe, is part of the series of meetings the US President would have on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1, the White House said.

At the recently concluded Est Asia summit, Modi met separately, all the members of the Quadrilateral — Japan, US and Australia — even though India remains the most cautious in that group.

Modi, in his keynote address at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore in June expounded India’s stand on the strategic Indo-Pacific region. “India does not see the Indo-Pacific Region as a strategy or as a club of limited members. Nor as a grouping that seeks to dominate. And by no means do we consider it as directed against any country. A geographical definition, as such, cannot be,” Modi had said. “India stands for an open and stable international trade regime. We will also support rule-based, open, balanced and stable trade environment in the Indo-Pacific region, which lifts up all nations on the tide of trade and investment,” he said.

Briefing journalists before the visit, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said Modi would meet Chinese president Xi Jinping as well. “There is always scope on the margins of G20 for a meeting between the BRICS head of states and that meeting is confirmed. The PM will meet the Xi as decided at the BRICS summit of Johannesburg.”

Gokhale also expressed hope that the 10th anniversary of the G20 would chart a course for the future. “At the tenth anniversary of the G20, it is our expectation that leaders will reflect on what has been achieved in the past 10 years and what could be done in the next 10 years,” he said. Oil price stability and reform of the WTO would also be on the agenda, he said.

The trilateral is part of the series of meetings the US President would have on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires

Courtesy: Times of India: 29th Nov, 2018