Quad foreign ministers to meet today
The foreign ministers of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad will hold a meeting in New Delhi on March 3 following Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi’s decision to go ahead with a visit to India.
Hayashi’s involvement in an ongoing session of the Japanese Parliament had prevented his participation in the G20 foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi during March 1-2. Japan sent minister of state for foreign affairs Kenji Yamada to represent the country at the G20 meet.
Senior Japanese opposition lawmakers said on Wednesday that Hayashi will not be asked to answer questions during the parliamentary session on March 3, thus paving the way for him to travel to India for the Quad meeting. Hayashi is expected to travel to New Delhi early on Friday to attend the breakfast meeting with his Quad counterparts from India, Australia and the US.
Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and US secretary of state Antony Blinken were already in New Delhi for the G20 meeting.
Besides their meeting early on Friday, the Quad foreign ministers are expected to participate in a panel at the Raisina Dialogue, the external affairs ministry’s premier conference on geo-politics and geo-economics, people familiar with the matter said.
The external affairs ministry said in a statement that the meeting will be an opportunity for the ministers to continue their discussions held at their last meet in New York in September 2022. “They will exchange views on recent developments in the Indo-Pacific region and regional issues of mutual interest, guided by their vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific,” the statement said.
The ministers will also review progress made by the Quad in “pursuit of its constructive agenda and implementation of initiatives aimed at addressing contemporary priorities of the region”, the statement added.
The people cited above said the Quad meeting will be an opportunity for the foreign ministers to review the grouping’s initiatives across the Indo-Pacific in key areas such as maritime security, health, infrastructure projects and connectivity. They are also expected to discuss China’s aggressive actions across the region, including the situation in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
The meeting will also help prepare for the Quad Leaders’ Summit to be hosted by Australia later this year, the people said.
Hayashi is also expected to hold a bilateral meeting with external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday afternoon to review bilateral relations, including growing security ties, trade and investment and cooperation at multilateral forums, the people said.
Earlier, Hayashi’s preoccupation with the parliamentary session had cast doubt on his planned visit to India. This had raised questions about whether the Quad foreign ministers meeting could be held.