New Delhi open to India-Japan-US-Australia quadrilateral

In the wake of Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono's suggestion to add Australia to the Japan-India-US dialogue process, a senior official here on Friday said New Delhi is open to work with like-minded countries that advance India's interests.

"India is open to working with like-minded countries on issues that advance our interests and promote our viewpoint," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in his weekly media briefing here. "We are not rigid in this regard."

In an interview to The Nikkei on Wednesday, Kono said Japan would propose a top-level dialogue with the US, India and Australia.

He said the idea was for the leaders of the four nations to promote free trade and defence cooperation across a stretch of ocean from the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and all the way to Africa.

It would be aimed at counteracting China's aggressive maritime expansion under its Belt and Road initiative. China's plans would cement a sphere of influence for Beijing well beyond Asia.

Kono also that he exchanged his thoughts on the four-party dialogue with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in August on the sidelines of a foreign ministers' meeting in Manila.

According to The Nikkei report, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will present the proposal to US President Donald Trump on November 6.

Last week, in a speech on "Defining Our Relationship with India for the Next Century" at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington DC, Secretary of State Tillerson too made a similar suggestion.

"We are already capturing the benefits of our important trilateral engagement between the US, India and Japan," he said.

"As we look ahead, there is room to invite others, including Australia, to build on the shared objectives and initiatives."

In his briefing on Friday, Kumar said that because of India's broad acceptability as a country, there were a number of such initiatives which were trilateral in nature.

"For example, we did the trilateral meeting with Russia and China on the topic of Asia Pacific last year," he said.

"We also do an India-Sri Lanka-Maldives trilateral on security matters. We have been doing India-US-Japan for many years and recently India-Japan-Australia."

Kumar referred to the India-Afghanistan-Iran and India-US-Afghanistan trilateral meetings and said that all these meetings were conducted at various levels.

"As far as we are concerned, we have an open mind to cooperate with countries with convergence but obviously on an agenda which is relevant to us,"he added.

--IANS

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