The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head a bilateral conference with External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar in Melbourne, Australia today. Secretary Blinken is on a trip to Australia, Fiji and Hawaii, while EAM Jaishankar is in Melbourne for the Quad Foreign Ministers conference.
EAM Jaishankar is taking part in the fourth Quad foreign ministers’ conference in Australia’s Melbourne along with his peers from Japan, Australia and the United States.
The ministry of external affairs (MEA) in its announcement on Wednesday announced this will be Jaishankar’s first trip to Australia as the EAM. It is likewise the first-high level visit to Australia from India after the boundaries were unlocked amid an improvement in the Covid-19 pandemic situation.
The MEA statement noted that it will be a chance for the ministers to converse upon their virtual meeting held in February 2021 and trade views on regional strategic cases given their shared vision of a free, open and comprehensive Indo-Pacific region.
The statement further disclosed that the foreign ministers of the four countries will also evaluate the ongoing Quad cooperation and create on the positive and constructive agenda notified by the Leaders at the two Summits last year, to communicate contemporary challenges such as climate change, COVID-19, supply chains among others.
The Quad ministers’ meet has come jointly as a union of Indo-Pacific democracies, launched to counter China’s increased military and financial aggression.
