Top diplomats from the US, Australia and India plan to meet in Tokyo next week to discuss their common regional concerns, such as China’s increasingly assertive actions, in the first face-to-face ministerial meetings Japan is to host since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi yesterday told reporters that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne and Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar are to meet for talks on Tuesday next week.
Motegi said the four ministers are expected to discuss ways to promote “a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a concept of security and economic cooperation that Japan and the US have been pushing in the face of Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the region.
“It is very timely for the four foreign ministers sharing the same concerns over the regional situation” to share their views in person, Motegi said.
They are expected to discuss COVID-19 and the economy hurt by the pandemic and other regional concerns, he added.
“The vision of [a] ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ will be even more important in a post-coronavirus world,” he said. “In order to achieve it, I hope to confirm at the upcoming meeting the importance to deepen our cooperation with other countries.”
New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga might also meet with Pompeo on the sidelines of the talks in his first face-to-face meeting with a top foreign official since taking office.
Suga is also expected to meet with the Australian and Indian foreign ministers.
The four strategic partners held their foreign ministers’ talks in September last year in New York.
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