Meet within meet: Quad nations plan talks after G20 foreign ministers event

The foreign ministers of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad will meet in New Delhi on March 3 and discuss strategic issues, a day after a two-day meeting of the G20 foreign ministers.

The meeting was uncertain until Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi announced he will travel to India despite the ongoing session of the Japanese Parliament.

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Assuming that Hayashi won’t make it to India, Japan sent minister of state for foreign affairs Kenji Yamada to attend the G20 meet.

But Hayashi agreed to fly to New Delhi after Japanese opposition lawmakers said he will not be asked to answer questions in parliament when he is away.

Hayashi

Hayashi will arrive in India on Friday and join the breakfast meeting with his counterparts from India, Australia and the US. The four countries make up the Quad.

Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and US secretary of state Antony Blinken are already in New Delhi.

The Quad meet will provide an opportunity to the four countries to review the grouping’s initiatives in the Indo-Pacific in key areas such as maritime security, health, infrastructure projects and connectivity.

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They may also discuss China’s aggressive actions in the region, including the situation in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

The next Quad summit will be held in Australia later this year.

Raisina Dialogue

The Quad foreign ministers will also take part on Friday in a panel at the Raisina Dialogue, the Indian external affairs ministry’s premier meet on geopolitics and geo-economics.

Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar met Blinken on Thursday.

A US official had earlier said what Blinken will discuss with Jaishankar at their bilateral.

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“They will talk about our strategic partner partnership but really focus on how we’re working together in the Asian Quad, in the G20, what we’re doing on defence cooperation and the Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies that is being run out of the White House and the (Indian) prime minister’s office,” Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, had said.

The G20 foreign ministers’ meet will be the second ministerial meeting held under India’s presidency.

The first – of finance ministers and Central Bank governors – was held in Bengaluru.