India will hold the official level talks on the ‘Quad’ Asia-Pacific formation on Wednesday on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Singapore. Announcing the talks, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the discussion will provide an opportunity to exchange ideas about the future of the Asia-Pacific region.
The meeting will be held a year after it was launched in Manila during the ASEAN.
“The principles of our Indo-Pacific region is that it should be free and inclusive where countries should respect international laws,” said Secretary (east) in the MEA Vijay Thakur Singh, reiterating the vision of India for the Quad. The Hindu had earlier reported that the meeting is likely to focus on infrastructure projects and on maritime security schemes in the region.
India and Japan have recently announced a series of joint projects along what they have called the “Asia-Africa growth corridor” in the Indo-Pacific region. Among the projects that they will work together on are the Jamuna Railway bridge in Bangladesh and other bridges in northeastern States of India, housing, school and electricity projects in Rohingya areas in Myanmar, an LNG plant in Sri Lanka and a cancer hospital in Kenya.
The Quad grouping has met at official level despite some divergences in the last year. To begin with, India is yet to agree to Australia’s request to join the Malabar exercises; officials also said it was still “too early” to discuss “militarising” the Quad.
