The four Indo-Pacific countries- the United States, India, Japan, and Australia held a meeting on Tuesday between their foreign ministers to build a “true security framework” to counter the challenges posed by an aggressive country like China. This was the first face-to-face interaction since the eruption of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan, China last December.
Initially, a meeting was held in September 2019 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to recover the security dialogue and upgrade it to ministerial level. In today’s meeting, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said that other countries could also join the security framework at the appropriate time.
In the Quad meet, India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar mentioned that the world has witnessed a “profound transformation” since the last meeting. The meeting also mentioned the long-standing border standoff between India and China over LAC which delayed the Indian foreign ministry’s preparation of hosting Chinese President, Xi Jinping.
