US President Joe Biden will host a virtual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during his official tour to West Asia from July 13 to 16.
- The new forum will be called “I2U2” — “I” for India and Israel and “U” for the US and UAE.
- In October 2021, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the these four countries took place when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was visiting Israel.
- At that time, it was called the ‘International Forum for Economic Cooperation’.
- This time, the virtual meeting will take place at the level of heads of government/state — an upgrade.
- The India-Israel-US-UAE grouping dealt with issues concerning maritime security, infrastructure, digital infrastructure and transport.
- At that time, Ahmed Albanna, Ambassador of UAE to India, had referred to the new grouping as the ‘West Asian Quad’.
GCC + 3
- The US President’s trip to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which will follow visits to Israel and the West Bank, is centred around a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council plus three (GCC + 3).
- The GCC is an economic and political alliance of six West Asian countries.
GS TIMES UPSC PRELIMS & MAINS CURRENT AFFAIRS BASED BASICS DAILY ONLINE TEST CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS QUIZ FOR STATE CIVIL SERVICES
MORE THAN 30 QUESTIONS FORM GS TIMES UPSC 2022 PRELIMS CURRENT AFFAIRS DAILY TEST
