Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the “bright and sunny” Brisbane to attend the G20 summit, on the second leg of his three-nation tour.
“Reached Brisbane. It is bright and sunny outside,” the prime minister said on Twitter.
He is the first Indian prime minister to visit Australia since Rajiv Gandhi in 1986.
Modi was received at the airport by the Premier of Queensland Campbell Newman. Indian High Commissioner in Australia, Biren Nanda, was also present.
In Australia, Modi will attend the G20 summit in Brisbane Nov 15-16 and also hold talks with his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott in Canberra during his five-day stay in the country.
During the G20, Modi is expected to raise the importance of the issue of global cooperation against black money. He had said in his departure statement in New Delhi Nov 11: “A key issue for me would be to highlight the importance of international cooperation against black money.”
He will also visit the cities of Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.
He is slated to hold a number of bilateral meetings with world leaders on the sidelines of the G20, including with Germany’s Angela Merkel, UK’s David Cameron and France’s Francois Hollande.
He arrived here from Myanmar, where he attended the ASEAN-India and East Asia Summit and also met a host of leaders of Southeast Asia as well as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
He flies to Fiji on the last leg of his tour.