In an event imbued with considerable geopolitical and geostrategic significance, foreign ministers of the Quad grouping are meeting face to face for the first time post-Covid in Melbourne, Australia on Friday to operationalize the arrangement on Indo-Pacific, vaccine delivery, critical and emerging technologies, and global security environment in the run-up to the Quad summit in April-May this year and, possibly, even consider expansion of the four-nation non-military grouping. 

 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Ann Payne will join Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at the crucial meeting at a time when China is belligerent towards Quad partners over Taiwan and is dragging its feet over fully resolving a 22-month-long standoff in Ladakh with India.

After attending the Quad meeting, Jaishankar will hold bilateral discussions with his Australian counterpart with a possible meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison to consolidate their  Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and take forward an interim free trade agreement. 

Australia has emerged as one of India’s key partners with Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally invested in improving the bilateral relationship with Canberra as both the middle-powers have convergence on a host of issues.

While Quad’s stature has grown -- from foreign secretary-level interactions in 2017, to the foreign ministers; meeting in 2019, to a Heads of State summit in 2021, though virtually -  the Melbourne meeting is especially significant as the four ministers will sit together to translate vaccine delivery on the ground by giving specific tasks such as manufacturing and funding of Covid vaccines to specific countries, the Hindustan Times said. 

Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan is simultaneously in India to advance negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) where he will meet his counterpart, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.The two sides have agreed to conclude a long-pending FTA called a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) by the end of 2022.

As per an Australian government statement, CECA is a “potential game-changer” in opening opportunities for both Australia and India and also an important piece of post-Covid economic recovery.

“A free trade agreement with India would be a boon for Australian businesses, farmers and workers, creating new jobs and opportunities with one of the world's largest and fastest developing economies,” Tehan said.

The aim of the visit is also to promote Australia as a premium destination for students and tourists, according to the statement. Tehan will also sign a memorandum of understanding on behalf of the Australian government with the Indian government to promote further travel and tourism between the two countries.  

In recent years, the India-Australia economic relationship has grown significantly. India’s growing economic profile and commercial significance to the Australian economy are acknowledged at both the federal and state levels in Australia. As part of its efforts to strengthen economic ties with India, the Australian government commissioned the India Economic Strategy to 2035, which outlined a path for Australia to capitalize on opportunities presented by Indian economic growth.

Writing in The Indian Express about the Jaishankar visit, Amitabh Mattoo, who teaches at the University of Melbourne and is a former founder-director of the Australia-India Institute, said: "On his first visit to Australia as India's External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar will have the opportunity to put a real imprimatur on two relationships that he has helped to craft: The Quad and bilateral ties with the government in Canberra. What is now vital is to demonstrate that these partnerships can truly deliver on transforming the reality on the ground by giving the Quad real substance and the Indo-Pacific a fighting chance at stability despite now predictable Chinese subversiveness"

After the Australia’s visit, Jaishankar also be on a bilateral visit to the Philippines from 13-15 February as part of India's effort to forge strategic links with  key partners in the Indo-Pacific, Philippines being leading member of ASEAN that had recently bought BrahMos missiles from India.

(SAM)