External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar begins a six-day visit to Australia and the Philippines from Thursday.
His first stop will be Australia from February 10 to 13, his first visit to that country as External Affairs Minister while the Philippines visit will begin from February 13 to 15. He will be visiting Manila over two weeks after the South-East Asian nation inked 375 million dollar deal with India to purchase three batteries of the BrahMos cruise missile.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, Dr. Jaishankar will participate in the fourth Quad foreign ministers’ meeting on February 11 in Melbourne where Foreign Ministers from Australia, Japan and the U.S. will also be present.
The MEA said it will be an opportunity for the ministers to follow up on their virtual meeting held in February last year and exchange views on regional strategic issues given their shared vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.
“The ministers will review ongoing Quad cooperation and build on the positive and constructive agenda announced by the leaders at the two summits in 2021, to address contemporary challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains, critical technologies, climate change, infrastructure etc,” the MEA said in a statement.
Dr Jaishankar will also co-chair with his Australian counterpart Marise PAyne the 12th India-Australia foreign ministers’ framework dialogue on February 12.
During his three-day visit to the Philippines, Dr Jaishankar will hold talks with his counterpart Teodoro L Locsin Jr, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines.