I2U2 Leaders’ Virtual Summit: The first India-Israel-UAE-USA (I2U2) Leader’s Summit was organised on July 14, 2022, in virtual mode.

Key Facts:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi was joined by United States President Joe Biden, Israeli PM Yair Lapid and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Note:  The grouping is known as ‘I2U2’ with “I” standing for India and Israel and “U” for the US and the UAE.

• The I2U2 grouping was conceptualized during the meeting of the foreign ministers of the four countries held on October 18 2021.
• The inaugural I2U2 leaders meeting focused on the food security crisis and clean energy.

Key Points about the I2U2 Leader’s Summit:

• In a Joint Statement, the leaders said that innovative ways were discussed to ensure longer-term, more diversified food production and food delivery systems that can better manage global food shocks.
• They intend to mobilize private sector capital and expertise to modernize infrastructure, advance low carbon development pathways for industries, improve public health and access to vaccines and advance physical connectivity between countries in the Middle East region.
• They also intend to jointly create new solutions for waste treatment, explore joint financing opportunities and promote the development of critical emerging and green technologies.
• The statement reaffirmed support for the Abraham Accords and other peace and normalization arrangements with Israel.
• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that it will invest $2 billion in India to create food parks to help tackle food insecurity in South Asia and the Middle East.
• India will provide “appropriate land” for “food parks” across the country that will be built in collaboration with Israel, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
• India will “facilitate farmers’ integration into the food parks.
• The food parks aimed at cutting down “food waste and spoilage” are a few of the collaborations that the four countries declared after the summit.
• The leaders said they would bring in private capital for specific projects in the fields of water, energy, transportation, health, space and food security.
• U.S. and Israeli private sectors will be invited to lend their expertise and offer innovative solutions that contribute to the overall sustainability of the project.
• These investments will help maximize crop yields which, in turn, will help tackle food insecurity in South Asia and the Middle East.
• The I2U2 Group also declared that it will support a “hybrid renewable energy project” in Gujarat, consisting of 300 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar capacity.
• The project is expected to be another step in India’s quest for “500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030”.