NEW DELHII: Foreign ministers of the Quad grouping, which includes India, Australia, Japan and the US, are likely to meet on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The meeting is expected to review cooperation between the four countries to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific against the backdrop of China’s increased assertiveness across the region, the people said. The Quad members are still in discussions regarding the meeting and a date is yet to be locked down, they said.
The meeting is possible though it is yet to be confirmed, one of the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. The UN General Assembly’s annual session is set to start on September 19.
If it goes ahead, this will be the first meeting of external affairs minister S Jaishankar, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong, Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and US secretary of state Antony Blinken after they gathered in New Delhi on March 3 to discuss key challenges in the Indo-Pacific.
The Ukraine crisis is also expected to come up in any possible meeting, the people said.
At their meeting in March, the foreign ministers denounced the threat of the use of nuclear weapons in the context of the Ukraine conflict and opposed unilateral actions to change the status quo or increase tensions in the South and East China Seas.
The Quad Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, meant to tackle new and emerging forms of terrorism, was among new initiatives unveiled at the meeting in March.
China’s aggressive behaviour has been in focus again in recent weeks, both because of the dragging standoff with India on the Line of Actual Control and the use of a water cannon by a Chinese coast guard ship against a Philippine vessel carrying supplies to troops on a shoal in the South China Sea.
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