EAM Jaishankar to participate in QUAD meeting on February 11

To prepare for the Quad summit in April-May this year, the foreign ministers from the world's most powerful security alliance will meet in Australia on Friday to operationalise the Indo-Pacific, vaccine delivery, critical and emerging technologies, and global security environment.

The External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar departed for the Quad ministerial on Tuesday via Qatar, with India clear that the security grouping should first consolidate its gains and reflect policies on the ground before discussing the arrangement's expansion. The meeting will include the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Ann Payne, at a time when China is belligerent towards Quad partners over Taiwan and is dragging its feet in resolving the May 2020 Ladakh standoff with India. 

Following the Quad meeting, EAM Jaishankar will hold bilateral talks with his Australian counterpart, with a possible meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, as both countries' ties have rapidly strengthened since 2014. Today, Australia is one of India's key partners, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally invested in strengthening the bilateral relationship with Canberra, as both middle-powers share common interests on various issues.

While the Quad's level has risen from Foreign Secretary in 2017 to Foreign Ministers in 2019 and Summit in 2021, the grouping will be linked through a diplomatic blockchain, with no permanent secretariat as it is no longer necessary. The meeting is crucial because the foreign ministers will translate the QUAD policies on the ground rather than simply talking shop. For instance, the four leaders will work together to translate vaccine delivery on the ground by assigning specific tasks to leader countries such as manufacturing and funding of Covid vaccines.

The Quad ministers will discuss building trusted supply chains for emerging and critical technologies such as 5G, 6G, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, the Ukraine crisis, China's growing proximity to Russia, and its hostility towards Taiwan. Instead of debating on Quad expansion, the former foreign secretary said it's time to translate policies on the ground. He added Quad must now be actionable, the time for symbolism has passed.

The Quad ministers are expected to work out a policy to integrate the partners' diplomatic bureaucracies at the Canberra summit, as the latter is the biggest obstacle to forward movement. A former Indian ambassador said to the US it is one thing to make a statement on vaccines, but given the political overtones vaccines have acquired, the Quad Ministers must identify who will manufacture the vaccine and which countries will be supplied on a priority basis as per requirement.

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• Australia
• China
• Indo-Pacific
• Japan
• Quad summit
• Subrahmanyam Jaishankar