Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met United States President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Manila, the Capital of the Philippines, ANI reported. The Prime Minister’s Office had earlier on Sunday said that Modi had landed in Philippines, and would hold talks with the country’s President Rodrigo Duterte and other world leaders.
“India seeks to further diversify cooperation with the Philippines,” Modi had tweeted on Saturday ahead of his three-day visit to the country. “I will also have interactions with other Asean and East Asia Summit Leaders.”
Modi will also attend the 50th anniversary celebrations of Asean, the Asean Business and Investment Summit and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Leaders’ Meet.
The prime minister had said on Saturday that he would interact with the Indian community in the Philippines. Modi will visit the International Rice Research Institute, which he said “has developed better quality of rice seed and helped the global community in addressing food scarcity issues.” He will also visit the Mahavir Philippines Foundation, which he said would “demonstrate India’s support for its activities in distributing free prosthesis to amputees.”
An ‘inclusive Indo-Pacific region’
Earlier on Sunday, officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and United State’s Department of State met in Manila. In a statement, the MEA said that they had “highlighted India’s Act East Policy as the cornerstone of its engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.” Buzz around the summit suggests the four countries are likely to resurrect a decade-old idea for a grouping, known as the quadrilateral, in yet another attempt to contain the rise of China.
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