When Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, travels to Tokyo next week to “deepen ties with like-minded partners” Japan, India and the United States, she is sure to be swapping notes with her counterparts on how each country is handling tensions with China.
Experts say the high-level meeting of the “Quad” won’t do anything to ease Australia’s current diplomatic turbulence with Beijing, but they see it as an important signalling exercise: foreign ministers from four of the Indo-Pacific region’s maritime democracies coordinating their policies and standing together in the face of common challenges.
The agenda for the meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday will include how to support the region’s health and economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, improve the resilience of international supply chains, and push back against state-backed disinformation. Australia wants the discussion to take into account particularly sensitive sectors such as critical minerals and technology. Read more…..
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India, Japan and Australia have begun discussions on launching a trilateral Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) to reduce dependency on China, necessitated by Beijing’s aggressive political and military behaviour. The initiative, first proposed by Japan, is now taking shape, ET has learnt. Dates are being worked out to hold the first meeting of the commerce and trade ministers of the three countries by next week. ET’s Pranab Dhal Samanta has more. (Text: ET Bureau)
