The BLBreaking News | US News | Politics
President Donald Trump is in Osaka, Japan, for the 2019 G-20 Summit scheduled from June 27 to 29. On his second day at the summit the president met individually with multiple world leaders.
In a highly significant and symbolic gathering, President Trump met publicly with the leaders of both India and Japan; Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan.
Since being elected, President Trump has been strengthening ties with the two countries, which are the largest democracies in Asia.
The alliances of the three countries are of increasing importance as communist China increases its aggressions and influences internationally in its stated goal of global domination. Particularly in Asia, the Chinese regime has claimed ownership of virtually the entire South China Sea where it built multiple man-made military bases during the final years of the Obama administration.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first to speak at the public gathering.
“It is indeed a great pleasure that I am able to convene this summit meeting of the three countries, Japan, U.S., India. Three countries. I think we three countries are the foundation of the peace and prosperity of the region. A free and open Indo-Pacific is something that we would like to strive toward and I’d like to look at closer coordination among the three countries going forward. Donald and Prime Minister Modi, I thank you for your cooperation to enable this summit meeting.” said Prime Minister Abe.
When asked by the press what the leaders would discuss, President Trump declined to mention specifics, saying they had a lot to talk about and that it would be very positive. In his opening comments the president congratulated the prime ministers on their most recent election victories.
“Well, it’s a great honor to be here. My two very good friends, we got to know each other very well over a short period of time and you and I are going to be meeting separately after this meeting,” said President Trump, referring to an individual meeting he was to have with Modi later in the day.
The president continued, “Prime Minister Modi, thank you very much. And congratulations on your great victory. I should say congratulations really to both because Shinzo also had a great victory. So congratulations to both of you on tremendous numbers, tremendous success, and tremendous popularity. You’re doing a great job for your countries and I’ll see you in a little while, I look forward to it.”
India is the largest democracy in the world. Modi expressed optimism in the relationship between the three countries and India’s commitment to democracy in Asia.
“There is a new faith and confidence in our nations. And I’m sure that we’ll have meaningful discussions during our meeting. We have common interests in the area of Indo-Pacific. We would like peace and stability in this region. We are committed to democracy. And therefore, we would like peaceful development and security in this region,” said Modi.
This meeting of the three countries is of significant economic, military, and strategic importance and sends a message that in alliance with the United States, democracy in Asia is strong and stable.
Prime Minister Modi pointed out that when the initials of all three countries are put together, they have a particular meaning in the Indian language of Hindi.
“Japan, America and India, JAI. Jai in Hindi means ‘victory,’” said Modi.
