Modi, Australian PM to address meeting on cutting-edge technologies

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 16

In a post Quad Summit meeting development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will give the keynote address at the inaugural Sydney Dialogue from November 17 to 19 which will focus on emerging, critical and cyber technologies. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will give the opening address.

The first in-person Quad summit hosted by US resident Joe Biden in Washington on September 24 had committed to the development of critical and emerging technology by coordinating their approaches to technological design, development, governance and usage. Besides, technology is a key element in the ongoing push by both countries to deepen trade and investment ties.

The Sydney Dialogue proceeds with the assumption that conversations about technology are currently taking place in silos. These include areas such as artificial intelligence, the use of surveillance technologies, quantum, space and biotechnology, disinformation and cyber-enabled interference, supply chain resilience and the future of cyberspace.

The Sydney Dialogue intends to provide a forum to anticipate and respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by increasingly complex advances in technology. It will have an Indo-Pacific focus and bring together business, government and technology leaders with strategic thinkers to work towards common understandings of the challenges posed by new technologies, said the Dialogue organisers.

The Quad summit had also felt that technology should not be misused or abused for malicious activities such as authoritarian surveillance and oppression, for terrorist purposes, or to disseminate disinformation. However, both leaders have patchy records on this account, as per civil society organisations. India has new internet rules that include restrictions on content and insist on traceability of information. The government is also accused of using the military-grade spyware Pegasus for snooping on journalists, opponents and civil society activists. Australia, too, has laws that give sweeping rights to security agencies.