India, Australia and Indonesia are about to hold two virtual meetings of their foreign and defence ministers to bolster regional cooperation and maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.
The meetings will be held against China’s increasingly aggressive provocative actions.
The meetings have been in the works for some time and the video conference of the foreign ministers – S Jaishankar, Marise Payne of Australia and Retno Marsudi of Indonesia. The meeting is expected later this month, and will be followed by the meeting of defence ministers,sources said on condition of anonymity.
“This is a fast moving trilateral with the defence and foreign ministers expected to meet over the next couple of months. All three countries have a shared interest in an open and inclusive Indo-Pacific,” one of the people said.
Officials working have coined the term “minilateral” to describe the coming together of the three countries.
“With the world’s biggest democracy, India, Asia’s oldest democracy, Australia, and the largest Muslim-majority democracy in the form of Indonesia, we think this could be one of the region’s most important minilaterals,” said the person cited above.
