Highlights
- India, Israel, US, UAE participated in first virtual summit of the four nation grouping
- The four nations decided to jointly invest in 6 key sectors
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that I2U2 has established a positive agenda
I2U2 Virtual Summit: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday joined US President Joe Biden, Israeli PM Yair Lapid and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the first virtual summit of the four-nation grouping 'I2U2'.
Speaking at the summit, PM Modi said, "from this very first summit, I2U2 has established a positive agenda. We have identified joint projects in various sectors and prepared a roadmap to go ahead."
"Under the I2U2 framework, we've agreed on increasing the joint investment in 6 important areas of water, energy, transport, space, health & food security. It is clear that the vision & agenda of I2U2 are progressive & practical," PM Modi said.
The Prime Minister further said, "by mobilising our mutual strength, capital, expertise and markets, we can speed up our agenda and make important contributions to the global economy. Amid increasing global uncertainty, our cooperative framework is also a good model for practical cooperation."
US President Joe Biden said, "the challenges we face today include accelerating climate crisis or growing food insecuirty... volatile energy markets made worse by Russia's brutal and unprovoked attack against Ukraine..."
"Right now there is a vacuum, over the next 3 years, this group is going to work to identify new infrastructure projects that we can invest in and develop together...We can do a great deal if we stick together," Biden added.
Israeli Prime Minister Yasir Lapid said that the real solutions will only come through countries that know how to bring together resources. "We want to change the world for the better."
"Our goal is to have the private market as a partner. Despite being 4 different countries...it's clear that all of us want the same thing including infrastructure development, quality education for children... reducing damage inflicted on environment," Israeli Prime Minister said.
The joint statement of the grouping said, "India, Israel, UAE, US convened for the first leaders’ meeting of the I2U2 Group with a particular focus on joint investments and new initiatives in water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security; to mobilize private sector capital."
Today’s inaugural I2U2 leaders meeting focused on the food security crisis and clean energy. The leaders discussed innovative ways to ensure longer-term, more diversified food production and food delivery systems that can better manage global food shocks, the joint statement said.
The leaders expressed their determination to leverage well-established markets to build more innovative, inclusive, and science-based solutions to enhance food security and sustainable food systems, it added.
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