It’s heartening to announce the forthcoming Australian visit by the esteemed Prime Minister of India’s Sri Narendra Modi from 15 to 18 November 2014. He will be attending G20 summit on 15-16 November at Brisbane and travel to Sydney on 17 November and finally to Canberra on 18 November 2014 for a bilateral meeting with the Australian PM Tony Abbott.

 

This will be second meeting between the two leaders after Abbott visited India in September this year. During the last visit, the two countries inked the civil nuclear cooperation agreement.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott had visited India in September this year and the two leaders seen here together during the visit.

Modi will be the second Prime Minister to visit Australia after Rajiv Gandhi in 1986, Indian Counsel General Manika Jain said on the occasion of celebrations of India’s Independence Day on 15 August 2014 in Melbourne.

Speaking on the occasion, Indian-origin Tasmanian Senator Lisa Singh said Modi`s visit will be another "turning point" in India-Australia relations after the 2009 trip to New Delhi by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

 

YouTube Video clip URL on Modi’s visit to Australia: http://youtu.be/xvOzhX5KO9Y

PM Modi's Australia visit pivotal to Indian economy: MD Nalapat

 

Australia to roll out red carpet for PM Narendra Modi in November: reported by Zee Media Bureau

 

Ahead of Modi's visit, a Gujarati film - “Bey Yaar” (Two Friends) - has been released for the first time in Australia, in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Abbott concluded his visit to India recently, after which he thanked Modi for the warm reception and hospitality accorded to him.

“The visit had resulted in concrete outcomes and added new dimensions to the strategic partnership between India and Australia," a statement had said.

 

Australian Pakistani Businessmen keen to meet Modi in Sydney

In a rare instance, Pakistan Australia Business Council (PABC), a body of Pakistani businessmen in Australia, will be a part of reception when Prime Minister will arrive in Sydney on November 17. A Times of India report has said this.

“We are going to attend Modi’s community reception. Australian Pakistanis and Australian Indians have been living here as friends and there are no hostilities between them. We want better relations between India, Pakistan and Australia,” PACB president Iftikhar Rana has been quoted as saying. This gesture of Pakistani businessmen should be viewed both with scepticism as well as a goodwill gesture in view of normally Muslim community across the globe working against the interests of India at large and Modi in particular. This is more so after the arrest of Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai in US.

Narendra Modi’s Three Nation Tour

Narendra Modi is embarking on a three nation tour on 12-13 to Myanmar, 15-18 Australia and on 19 November from Australia for a day long trip of Fiji Island.

This will be first visit by an Indian PM after 28 years by Rajiv Gandhi in 1986. He will address the joint sitting of federal parliament, according to officials. He is also expected to address the Indian community at a reception in Sydney, Australia, just like he did during his trip to the US at the Madison Square Garden.

 

Modi’s Madison Square Garden Show in Sydney

The Indian community in Australia, keen to replicate the New York event, is exploring venues including Sydney's famous Olympic Park for Modi's address, sources well-versed with the developments said. Melbourne was considered initially, but finally settled for Sydney, sources informed.

Sydney's historic Opera House was under consideration, but it was dropped given its limited capacity. The proposed venue in the harbor city will be equivalent to the Madison Square Garden, sources informed. Nearly 15,000 Indian-Australians are expected to attend the event.

Jason Koutsoukis reported on October 26, 2014 from Advertisement

Delhi:

It's the Modi Express – literally.

At 8.30pm on November 16, 220 fervent admirers of India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi will depart Melbourne's Southern Cross Station on a chartered overnight train bound for Sydney in time to see him appear live in front of 16,000 people at the Allphones Arena the next evening.

The train will be specially catered, with food cooked in the style of Mr Modi's home state of Gujarat in India's north-west.

"The response was beyond our expectation as people were very excited about the whole concept," said Ashwin Bora from the Indian Australian Community Foundation (IACF), who helped to come up with the idea of chartering the train.

"We received over 100 bookings within two hours of this announcement. Even though we have a much larger number coming from Melbourne, we could only accommodate 220 in the 'Modi Express' of four carriages," Mr Bora told Fairfax Media.

Event organisers in Sydney say that more than 21,000 people have already registered through their local community organisations to attend the event in Sydney, which can only seat 16,000.

Another 20,000 people are expected to register from Monday onwards, when organisers open a number of seats up for allocation by lottery.

According to IACF spokesman Balesh Singh Dhankhar, organisers have been overwhelmed by the response from Australia's Indian community.

"Not only is this the first time in 28 years that an Indian prime minister has come to Australia, but I think a lot of the Indian community here have been inspired by Modi and have very high hopes for what he can achieve for India."

When Mr Modi's staff initially planned the trip, they thought the visit to Brisbane for the G20 conference, an address to the Australian Parliament in Canberra, and a 1000-plate banquet at the Melbourne Cricket Ground hosted by Prime Minister Tony Abbott would be enough.

"It was only after a huge expression of interest from people in Sydney that the Prime Minister's Office understood that Modi had to come to Sydney," said Mr Dhankhar. Read full story here.

"Even though we got all the seats booked long ago, we are still getting so many calls for the 'Modi Express' that we can run one more train like this," said Shivesh Pandey, a volunteer at IACF helping in the arrangements of 'Modi Express'. The 'charismatic' Indian Prime Minister has already won the hearts of his fans here as they are eagerly looking forward to his visit. The train journey is indeed going to hold a unique place in their memory. More here

PM invites ideas and thoughts for his forthcoming visit to Australia

 

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has invited ideas and thoughts for his forthcoming visit to Australia.

“During my Australia visit in November I would be attending a variety of programmes, including an interaction with the Indian community there.

I want to hear ideas and thoughts from all of you, including friends in Australia and the Indian community there on my visit.

Participate in this MyGov Open Forum and share your ideas on what you feel are important issues for my Australia visit: http://mygov.in/groupissue/prime-minister-in-australia/show,” the Prime Minister said.

Kindly also visit his own blog and leave your thoughts there as well.

 

PM Narendra Modi has several big-ticket summits lined up in November

Having blitzed through September with high voltage summits spanning half the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a second spree of big ticket summits in November; The Times of India had reported.

From November 12, Modi will be in Nay Pyi Daw for the Asean-India and East Asia Summits. This summit gets top billing from the Indian establishment because the East Asia process is India's gateway into the Asian security environment. Modi is likely to go the extra mile in Myanmar, given its importance in India's security and economic matrix. Myanmar is not only India's gateway to Southeast Asia, it's critical for managing insurgency in the northeast. In addition, India is in the process of building an economic corridor through Myanmar to Thailand and perhaps beyond. ...

The summit in Brisbane this year will be Modi's first meeting with many of the G20 heads of government. Clearly India wants the G20 process to mean more than a mere talking shop. Modi has appointed Suresh Prabhu as Sherpa for G20, which is a significant appointment.

Modi will be the first Indian PM to do a bilateral summit in Australia after Mrs Indira Gandhi. He has scheduled a bilateral summit with Tony Abbott after the G20 meet, making it the first time ever that India and Australia would be doing bilateral summits within the same calendar year, a sign of how important Australia has become in India's priorities.

The third week of November will be reserved for the Saarc summit to be held in Nepal this time. Modi has already done a bilateral visit to Nepal, but Saarc is close to his heart and India is expected to push things along in this sleepy regional organization in line with Modi's neighbourhood focus. The PM is also supposed to travel to Janakpur and Lumbini in Nepal which will add a couple more days to his itinerary.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has also invited Modi as a special invitee to the Beijing APEC summit in mid-November. Modi, said sources, is yet to take a call on this invitation, but it looks difficult. However, Modi might be tempted, given India has been quite keen to get into this economic grouping, which has closed off membership for over a decade.

Dr. O. P. Sudrania