India to host Quad senior officials meeting next week

The Quad SOM meeting is one of several meetings to be held between India and Indo-Pacific Partners. The Quad senior officials meeting comes ahead of the SCO summit in Uzbekistan in mid-September.

New Delhi:Amid the ongoing China-Taiwan strait tensions, India is set to host the first such senior officers meeting (SOM) of the Quad grouping with Australia, the US, and Japan anytime between September 5-6.

The Quad SOM meeting is one of several meetings to be held between India and Indo-Pacific Partners. The Quad senior officials meeting comes ahead of the SCO summit in Uzbekistan in mid-September. Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with the important leaders of Russia, Iran, China, Pakistan, and Central Asia will attend the SCO Summit and it is the first such in-person meeting since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The officials of the Ministry of External Affairs will follow the Quad meeting with an India-US 2+2 “inter-sessional” meeting, with U.S Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu leading the American delegation to discuss bilateral issues. According to MEA, the meeting will also be attended by officials of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Direction General of the Foreign Policy Bureau from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Addressing a media briefing, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "the 2+2 with Japan is something that we're looking at an early date. And we are also expecting, there could be senior official level meetings here".

"This is a reflection of the close coordination and collaboration that we have with our partners. It's an important meeting. Japan is one of those few countries with whom we do a 2+2. And the US is obviously the other one, which is the first one we started and I think we would look forward to 2+2 inter-sessional with the US here", he added.

External Affairs minister Dr. Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh are also slated to travel to Tokyo later in the week for an India-Japan “2+2” ministerial meeting. From September 5-10, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will also travel to the US for bilateral trade talks, as well as to attend the third Indo-Pacific Economic Forum ministerial meeting (IPEF) in Los Angeles, which is being held in person for the first time since its launch by U.S. President Biden in May.