The G20 foreign ministers’ meeting next month will be followed by a meeting of the foreign ministers of Quad countries. According to media, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will have a breakfast meeting with his Australian, Japanese and US counterparts – Penny Wong, Yoshimasa Hayashi and Antony Blinken respectively – on March 3.
The three ministers will attend the G20 summit on March 1-2 together with their Chinese and Russian colleagues while remaining in attendance for the Raisina Dialogue. The Quad ministerial is anticipated to decide on the final agenda for the Quad summit, which will be hosted by Australia this year, while reiterating their commitment to a free, open, resilient, and inclusive Indo-Pacific in the face of rising Chinese aggressiveness. Australian PM Anthony Albanese will arrive in India on March 8 for a bilateral summit during which he and PM Narendra Modi will discuss, among other things, efforts under the Quad mechanism to uphold the “rules-based international order’’.
Quad aims to further the ideas of liberty, the rule of law, democratic values, peaceful conflict resolution, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, as the foreign ministers had stated in a joint statement following their meeting last year on the margins of the UNGA. Both Moscow and Beijing see Quad as an exercise meant to contain China. Given India's links to Moscow and the fact that it is the only member of the Quad that has not denounced Russia's activities in Ukraine, the meeting is expected to express vehement opposition to any unilateral action that might upset the status quo or heighten tensions in the Indo-Pacific.