West Asia Quad: US, UAE, India, Israel to hold first summit next month

Washington: The United States has said that the first summit of the leaders of a new group of four nations — the US, India, Israel, and the UAE — will be held virtually during President Joe Biden’s visit next month to West Asia.
The group is called I2U2 – for India and Israel whose names begin with the letter “I” and the US and UAE that begin with the letter “U” – and it will be focused on West Asia.
The first summit will be held during Biden’s visit to Israel, the first leg of his maiden trip as President to West Asia from July 13 to 16. He will also visit the West Bank, home to the state of Palestine, and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he will meet around a dozen regional leaders.
A senior White House official on a background call with reporters about the visit said that the new initiative will be launched in a virtual call that Biden will hold with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennet, and UAE’s President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
They will discuss security and “areas of cooperation across hemispheres where UAE and Israel serve as important innovation hubs”, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity and went on to describe the meeting as a “unique engagement”. No other details were available about this new initiative, its goals, and reach.
A spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council said I2U2 was inaugurated by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in October 2021 and the virtual summit is a follow on “from that initial touch point”.