India-Australia will scale greater heights after summit-level meeting: Australian envoy

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold a virtual summit with his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison on June 4, an Australian envoy said that the two countries will scale greater heights after the summit-level meeting. During a virtual conference on June 1, Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell told the reporters that the two countries have grown closer together over the last few months.

The virtual summit comes at a time when India and China are in a border stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and attempts are being made through diplomatic channels to defuse the tension. While US President Donald Trump had offered to mediate between the ongoing stand-off, O’Farrell took a diagonally opposite position saying the issue should be resolved bilaterally.

“India and China border (LAC) issue should be resolved bilaterally between the two countries,” said the envoy.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), PM Modi and Morrison will discuss the issues of mutual interest during the summit. The two leaders will also be signing a number of bilateral agreements, including the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement which Farrell described as an agreement Australia has with its “strongest allies”.

Read: India-China Military Commanders To Meet Soon To Defuse Tensions Along LAC: Sources

Morrison's 'Sunday ScoMosas'

Ahead of the virtual summit, the Australian Prime Minister took to Twitter to rejuvenate ‘samosa diplomacy’ by sharing a picture of samosa - which he named ‘ScoMosas’- with mango chutney and tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Morrison wrote "it is a pity" that their upcoming meeting is through a video link since he would have liked to share the ‘ScoMosas’ with PM Modi. 

PM Modi replied to Morrison's 'Sunday ScoMosas' tweet saying they are "connected by the Indian Ocean, and united by the Indian Samosa." While PM Modi said that the 'ScoMosas' looks delicious, he added that they will enjoy it together once both the countries achieve a victory against COVID-19. While Australia has successfully flattened the coronavirus curve with less than 50 cases being reported every day, India is still struggling with the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases.

Read: Pompeo Is 'certain' China Will Use Situation In America To Gain More Territory