New Delhi: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is likely to travel to India in early March, in the run-up to President Joe Biden’s meeting with Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) leaders. Details of his visit are being worked out, news agency ANI reported, citing sources familiar with the development.
Quoting an official, the report said the State Department is planning Blinken’s visit in the first week of March.
"Secretary Blinken will be meeting his Indian counterpart and other officials to lay the groundwork for the upcoming Quad leaders summit in May 2023," the ANI report said, quoting a source.
This will be the third annual leaders’ summit of Quad members — India, Australia, Japan and the US. Tokyo was the host of the last summit in May 2022.
"The summit is expected to be held in Sydney and for now, most likely all four leaders will be present in person for the summit. President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will travel to Sydney to meet Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to further cement the Quad cooperation," ANI quoted another person familiar with the developments as saying.
Secretary Antony Blinken will also be attending the Raisina Dialogue and is expected to address the same.
Raisina dialogue is held annually and is a multilateral conference on geopolitics and geo-economics that the Observer Research Foundation, an independent think tank, in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs of India hosts.
This year, it will be held from March 2-4 in New Delhi.
Earlier, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in November on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India summit in Cambodia. They discussed the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Indo-Pacific region and bilateral ties between India and US, the ANI report added.
According to the news agency, US Secretary Blinken is also expected to travel to China in early February, however, no official announcements have been made as yet.