The first I2U2 leadership summit is set to be held on Thursday. US President Joe Biden will join Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and UAE president Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan in a four-way summit.
The main topics of discussion will be the war in Ukraine, Iran nuclear deal, rising inflation and food prices.
According to News 18, this is the first-time members of the grouping – whose names are derived from the first letters of the respective names of the countries (India, Israel – I2 and UAE, US – U2) – are meeting at the heads of state level. Until last year the meetings were held on foreign ministerial level.
The focus of the group is on economic cooperation and infrastructure projects. The group is often referred to as the West Asian Quad and may anger Iran as it may view the grouping as hostile to its interests.
It is still unclear as to how the grouping will affect Indo-Iranian ties as Tehran and New Delhi look to work together on interests such as trade, energy and people-to-people relations.
The US insists the grouping is meant to help India counter China and will also aim to help West Asian countries stop depending on China for their security needs.
“There’s concern about sales of certain Chinese military weapon systems into the Middle East, and the United States wants to limit that. And, of course, there’s always the concern about China gaining access to sensitive technologies,” Dan Shapiro, former US ambassador to Israel told the Jerusalem Post.
The I2U2 will help Israel establish and integrate itself in a region where its very presence threatens nations. It builds further on the Abraham Accords and will help Israel create partnerships in the Middle East.
For the UAE, this partnership gives it a chance to counter Iran as US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are equally concerned over Tehran’s motives.
