US President Donald Trump, PM Modi, Shinzo Abe to hold trilateral meeting at Buenos Aires G20 Summit

United States National Security Adviser John Bolton on Wednesday said that President Donald Trump will hold a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires. Addressing a press conference at the White House, Bolton said that the bilateral meeting between President Trump and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe “will transform at some point into a trilateral meeting with Indian PM Narendra Modi."

During the “trilateral meeting” meeting, the leaders of India, the US, and Japan are likely to discuss the possibility of a security architecture for the “Indo-Pacific region” to counter the aggressively rising China. The leaders of the world’s three powerful democracies may also discuss alternatives to China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative aimed at connecting China to Southeast Asia, Pakistan and Central Asia, and beyond to the Middle East, Europe and Africa by land and sea.

India and Japan are already in talks for the development of the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor to counter China’s BRI and create quality infrastructure and institutional connectivity in Africa.

The G20 Summit 2018 will be held between November 30 and December 1 in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires. Founded in 1999, the G20 is a grouping of world's top 20 economies. The group aims to discuss issues beyond the responsibility of any one organisation and work towards the promotion of international financial stability.

During the 15th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit last year, PM Modi had a brief and unofficial meeting with Trump, prime ministers of Japan and Australia. The meeting which was a first major move towards a quadrilateral security dialogue had sent tremors through the power corridors of China.