In a bid to amplify its activities in its vicinity, the Indian External Affairs Minister, Mr S Jaishankar, is scheduled to visit Laos and Japan in the last week of July.
Jaishankar has scheduled a visit to Vientiane, Laos, from 25 to 27 July for ASEAN-related meetings, including the Asia-ASEAN, the East Asia Summit, and the ASEAN Regional Forum meetings. He also needs to engage in bilateral meetings with officials of other countries.
The minister will then proceed to Japan, arriving on July 28, 2021, to attend a Quad Foreign Ministers meeting set for July 29, 2021, in Tokyo. Discussions on Indo-Pacific developments, copying and pasting progress on Quad initiatives, and other such topics will become part of the agenda.
Before the forthcoming head-of-states’ meeting in Tokyo, the top Quad officials held a video conference on July 3 to brainstorm new ways to advance Quad cooperation in domains including maritime situational awareness and telecommunications reliability.
Chinese aggressive posture in the region, especially the recently reported face-off with the Philippines, would probably form part of Jaishankar’s topics for dialogue.
The timing of the next Quad Summit, scheduled to be held in India, is yet unknown because the United States is preoccupied with the presidential one.
Thus, any collaboration within the Indo-Pacific region and the overall initiation of strengthening cooperation will be observed during India’s diplomacy endeavours.
