PM Suga mulls US visit to attend Quad meeting this month
Sep 08, 2021
Tokyo [Japan] September 9 : Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is considering a visit to the US later this month to hold a meeting with the other three members of 'The Quad' alliance.
The Quadrilateral meeting is taking place as US President Joe Biden has proposed the summit in hopes of facilitating cooperation among the four countries in response to China's growing clout in the Indo-Pacific region, Kyodo News reported.
The other two members of 'The Quad' will be represented by top officials from India and Australia.
A few days back, PM Suga has said he will not run for party re-election as a leader this month, amid criticism over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This comes as Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) prepares to hold its presidential election on September 29, with campaigning starting on September 17, Kyodo News reported.
Earlier in August, senior officials from the four-member countries of 'the Quad' had discussed ways to advance cooperation in areas including maritime and cyber-security, counter-terrorism, higher education, climate change, critical and emerging technologies and humanitarian aid in order to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.
In March this year, when the Quad held its first leader-level summit, Chinese officials had begun to view the Quad with growing concern. Since then, Beijing has concluded that the Quad represents one of the most consequential challenges to Chinese ambitions in the years ahead, Foreign Affair reported.
After the first meeting of "the Quad" in 2017, the Chinese Foreign Minister had scoffed at it as a "headline-grabbing idea," but within a few years, "the Quad" has become a matter of concern for Beijing.
