Scott Morrison and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fun G20 friendship

Things are going well for the PM during his G20 trip, while he didn't mince his words when he met with China’s leader, he appears to have formed a playful friendship with India’s PM.

While rubbing shoulders with the world’s elite, Scott Morrison has appeared to have formed a friendship with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mr Morrison is in Osaka for the G20 summit along with the likes of US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

While his face-to-face with President Xi was a little frosty, his time with Modi was all smiles with the two sharing a love-fest for each other on Twitter.

‘Kithana acha he Modi!’ Mr Morrison tweeted in Hindi, meaning ‘how good is Modi?’, along with a selfie of the pair together.

Kithana acha he Modi! #G20OsakaSummit pic.twitter.com/BC6DyuX4lf

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) June 28, 2019

Modi took their online relationship to the next level, responding with: “Mate, I’m stoked about the energy of our bilateral relationship.”

Mate, I’m stoked about the energy of our bilateral relationship! @ScottMorrisonMP https://t.co/RdvaWsqlwY

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 29, 2019

Within minutes of Modi’s heartwarming response it was flooded with thousands of likes on Twitter.

Last month the two leaders congratulated each other on their respective election victories and promised to work together.

MORRISON’S ICY CHAT WITH XI

Earlier Mr Morrison told President Xi Jinping that his nation’s ongoing trade stand-off with America is hurting the global economy.

The PM said it would be “unrealistic” for the two nations to sort out their differences in the coming days, but said Australia was not the only nation which had raised concerns about the impacts the tensions were having on global trade.

The US-China tensions have dominated the opening day of the Group of 20 leading economies in Osaka as have new tensions in the Middle East over Iran.

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Scott Morrison greets Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Osaka, Japan.

Mr Morrison said Australia would press ahead with its own new trade deals, talking up the prospect of sealing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership deal with the 10 ASEAN countries by the end of the year.

He said Australia soon hoped to clinch a free-trade agreement with the European Union, saying trade deals remained critical to creating and sustaining local jobs.

But Mr Morrison said resolution on US-China trade relations was “more important, more serious” than ever as the International Monetary Fund reminded G20 members of the potential impacts of further trade tariffs between the two, downgrading global growth forecasts.

He said Australia could have “some influence” on the issue and raised the issue with his Chinese counterpart in a brief conversation today.

The Australian PM walks past G20 member flags as he is welcomed by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the G20 Summit in Osaka. Picture: AFP

“I’m aware that there are real, substantial and difficult issues to be resolved,” Mr Morrison said.

“The same points I made this week, are being made and have been made by other leaders. I was talking to (Indonesia’s) President Widodo and they have been quite forward at this meeting and there is a frustration, we all know what needs to happen in terms of these rules.

“There is a strong awareness and realisation about what this means but ultimately it is for those two parties to resolve the issues.”

Mr Morrison said Xi reminded him he has “been in every state of Australia” and “retains a genuine interest and affection” for the country.

“We talked about Tasmania. The other thing we talked about … the people relationships that exist between Australia and China,” he said.

IS TRUMP COMING TO OZ?

It’s looking increasingly possible that Donald Trump could travel down under for the Australian Presidents Cup golf tournament in December.

Trump speaks with Morrison in Japan. Picture: AFP

The tournament came up during the president’s dinner with Mr Morrison on Thursday night ahead of the summit. At the time the president, a keen golfer, said it “might not be easy”.

But Sky News reports from the G20 summit that it has now heard Mr Trump has “got a hole in his diary” in December, suggesting the golf trip could be on. It would be Mr Trump’s first trip to Australia since becoming president.

Originally published as Scott Morrison and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fun G20 friendship