India beckons as Blinken, Austin get on road after ‘historic’ Quad summit

By Ateet Sharma New Delhi, March 13: As the ‘historic’ Quad summit ended Friday evening after almost one hour and 45 minutes of virtual huddle between Narendra Modi, Joe Biden, Suga Yoshihide and Scott Morrison – and with a promise to meet in person before the end of the year – it also kicked off what the United States describes as an ‘intensive stretch of diplomacy’ in the region.
With the US President choosing it as the first multilateral summit he’s hosted since taking office – “that’s on purpose”, said the Biden adiministration – the Quad has been taken to a new level. The process of cementing a group of strong democracies that will work together going forward to secure a free and open Indo-Pacific has already begun.
With Biden reiterating belief in the centrality of the Indo-Pacific to the national security of the United States, top US officials are getting on the road this weekend to deliver results before the strategic dialogue takes place in a physical meeting later in 2021.
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, will be in Tokyo from March 15 to 17 holding a Foreign Ministers Meeting with Motegi Toshimitsu, the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Additionally, Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defense, will also visit Japan during the same period to hold the Japan-US Security Consultative Committee (2+2) on March 16 along with Japanese Minister of Defense Nobuo Kishi.
On March 17-18, Blinken and Austin will attend another Foreign and Defense Ministerial (2+2) hosted by Seoul.