- Wednesday, March 12, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
A NEW ‘Quad’ has come up in international relations and this time, India and the US have been joined by Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). On Thursday (14), the heads of the government of the four nations held the grouping’s first summit virtually and during the talks, it was decided that the I2U2 will advance a hybrid renewable energy project in the western Indian state of Gujarat featuring 300 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar capacity, complemented by a battery-energy storage system.
“The US Trade and Development Agency funded a feasibility study for the $330 million (£280 million) project,” the I2U2 joint statement issued after the meeting of the four leaders said.
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It added that companies based in the UAE are looking into opportunities to serve as critical knowledge and investment partners.
“Israel and the United States intend to work with the UAE and India to highlight private sector opportunities. Indian companies are keen to participate in this project and contribute to India’s goal of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030. Such projects have the potential to make India a global hub for alternate supply chains in the renewable energy sector,” the statement read.
The joint statement also said that the UAE will invest $2 billion (£1.6 billion) to develop a series of integrated food parks across India.
The four leaders who attended the meeting were Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, US president Joe Biden, Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid and UAE president Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. They agreed to leverage well-established markets to set up more innovative, inclusive, and science-based solutions to improve food security and sustainable food systems.
[With agency inputs]
