Ahead of Jaishankar trip, India is game to formalise Quad dialogue that ruffles China
India will also take a call on Australia’s participation in this year’s Malabar naval exercise in Bay of Bengal later this month.
Ahead of Jaishankar trip, India is game to formalise Quad dialogue that ruffles China
India is not averse to institutionalising the interaction between four major democracies committed to securing Indo-Pacific principles and the shared vision on maritime security, cyber, critical technologies, infrastructure, counter-terrorism and regional cooperation, people familiar with the development said ahead of external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s Tokyo visit on Monday for the crucial Quad security dialogue. “India has no objections to formalising the Quad dialogue with the US, Japan and Australia as the interaction has already been taking place since 2017 with a meeting of foreign ministers taking place on the sidelines of the UNGA in 2019. If the other three members want to institutionalise the dialogue, India is ready to participate,” said a senior official familiar with the government’s thinking on the matter. While China has tried to drive a wedge between the four countries by calling it an exclusive group and even reaching out to Japan for bilateral economic revival, th…
