Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on the final leg of his three-nation visit, has begun his Australian visit in Sydney by meeting executives of top multinational companies in the country.
On Tuesday, he met John Andrew Henry Forrest AO, the executive chairman of Fortescue Future Industries, an Australia-based green energy and technology firm. Forrest, nicknamed Twiggy, is a businessman with interests in the mining industry and cattle stations, reported ANI.
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Dr Andrew Forrest, Executive Chairman of Fortescue Future Industries, in Sydney
— ANI (@ANI) May 23, 2023
PM Modi is on a three-day visit to Australia. pic.twitter.com/osQQPUhA7N
After meeting the Prime Minister, Forrest told reporters that he found Modi to be the global industry partner to promote green hydrogen. "Fossil fuel sector has only limited time to run and it must be replaced with a fuel which causes no harm and can do everything which coal, oil and gas can do. That is something that the Prime Minister is clearly a global champion on and I found him to be the global government partner to promote green hydrogen across the world," he said.
Modi also met Paul Schroder, CEO of Australian Super, a superannuation fund headquartered in Melbourne. Schroder is responsible for the leadership and strategic development of the fund and the provision of advice to the board.
Aiming to foster India-Australia collaboration in the mining and minerals sector, the Prime Minister also met Georgina Hope Rinehart, executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting Group, Roy Hill and S. Kidman & Co.
Modi arrived in Sydney on Monday and was welcomed by Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell and other officials. He was greeted by the members of the Indian diaspora who chanted "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" and "Vande Mataram".
He is scheduled to attend a community event in Sydney to celebrate Australia’s dynamic and diverse Indian diaspora. Later in the day, Modi will also hold a bilateral meeting with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese.
The leaders will discuss trade and investment, including efforts to boost trade between the two countries through a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement and work to strengthen people-to-people links, renewable energy, and defence and security cooperation, said the official statement released by the Australian government.
Earlier, in an interview with "The Australian" newspaper, the Prime Minister said he wanted to take the relationship with Australia to the "next level", including closer defence and security ties to help ensure an "open and free" Indo-Pacific.
He added that the Indo-Pacific region faced many challenges such as climate change, terrorism, security of sea lanes of communication and piracy, and asserted that India believes they can be addressed only through shared efforts.
"I am not a person who gets satisfied easily," he was quoted by the newspaper as saying. "I have seen that Prime Minister Albanese is the same. I am confident that when we are together again in Sydney, we will get the opportunity to explore how we can take our relations to the next level, identify new areas of complementariness and can expand our cooperation," he added.
He said he wants the two countries to push to realise the true potential of closer defence and security ties amid increasing defence links between the two countries recently.
Modi added that he hoped the visit would allow both countries to identify new areas of cooperation, ranging from new technology, clean energy, critical minerals, mining, cyberspace, and building resilient supply chains to the movement of skilled professionals, according to the interview.
