India, Israel, US and UAE's new alliance 'I2u2'

 India, Israel, US and UAE's new alliance 'I2u2'

US President Joe Biden will visit West Asia next month, July 12-16. Meanwhile, Biden will attend a virtual conference attended by India, the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

Elaborating further, a senior US administration official said that the new four-nation alliance would be called I2U2 (I2U2).

In this group, 'I2' is for India and Israel and 'U2' is for USA and UAE.

''The foreign ministers of the four countries met in October 2021.'' Indian Foreign Minister SJ Shankar had gone to Israel to attend the meeting.

At the time, ''the group of four countries was called the International Forum for Economic Cooperation.''

Now the heads of the four countries will attend the summit.

After announcing Biden's first visit to Saudi Arabia and Israel since becoming president, the US official said: "Some partners are out of the Middle East. The president will attend a virtual conference with the heads of state of the two countries.

The official said, ''In the meantime, we will discuss threats to food security and cooperation in other areas.''

The president is looking forward to talks with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed.

After visiting Israel, President Biden will travel to the occupied West Bank, where he will hold talks with the Palestinian Authority. After that they will go to Saudi Arabia. Here, Biden will attend a conference of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The summit will be attended by leaders of nine countries, including Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

Talking about the importance of India in all this, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said, "India is a big market. This is a huge consumer market. At the same time, it is a manufacturer of state-of-the-art technology and much-needed products. There are many areas where these countries can work together, be it technology, business, the environment, code 19 and security.

When Ned Price was asked what the group's purpose was, he said the alliances and partners that existed had not been fully utilized.

Is this alliance a quad alliance of West Asia?

In October 2021, when the group of foreign ministers of India, Israel, the United States and the United Arab Emirates met for the first time, important issues such as maritime security, infrastructure, technology and transport were discussed.

An important point of the meeting at that time was the establishment of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The then UAE ambassador to India called the alliance the "quad of West Asia".

The Biden administration has announced the formation of several groups since coming to power in January 2021, including four-party talks with Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom (Axis), and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

Earlier, during a visit to Japan last month, US President Biden announced the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPF), which includes 13 countries, including India.

Biden first mentioned the IPF in October 2021, saying that the United States would work with its allies to build this Indo-Pacific economic framework. Through it, we will improve trade facilitation, the standardization of digital technology, and the supply chain. "

He said, ''We will strive to achieve our shared goals of strengthening the United States, reducing carbon emissions, and promoting clean energy business, including infrastructure, labor, and legislation.''

The IPF will be different from traditional free trade agreements because such agreements take a lot of time and require the signatures of the participating countries.

The 13 countries in the IPF include the United States, Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

President Joe Biden will make another history with this visit. For the first time, they will go directly to Riyadh from Israel. Saudi Arabia and Israel have no diplomatic relations.

Saudi Arabia has recently allowed Israeli flights to the United Arab Emirates to use its borders.

Biden first visited Israel 50 years ago when he was a senator.

India and the United States are also members of the Quad Group.

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, a group made up of the United States, India, Japan and Australia, was proposed in 2007 by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and supported by other countries. In the same year, a meeting of these countries was held in Japan.

One of the main objectives of this group is to promote free trade in the Indo-Pacific region to compete with China.

India is also set to sign a free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates, and Prime Minister Modi is expected to visit the UAE next month.