Blinken to arrive in Australia for Quad meeting

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken goes to Asia next week for talks with Indo-Pacific allies, including a meeting of foreign ministers of the four-nation Quad, the State Department said in a Reuters report.

Blinken is making the trip despite the mounting crisis over Ukraine and policy analysts say the aim is to show the Indo-Pacific region support and that pushing back against China’s expanding influence remains Washington’s top priority.

Blinken will leave Washington on Monday and be in Australia from Feb.9-12 for the meeting of the Quad – the United States, Japan, India and Australia.

Blinken will then meet Pacific Island leaders in Fiji before heading to Hawaii to confer with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts to discuss the North Korea issue.

The State Department said the purpose of the trip was “to engage Indo-Pacific allies and partners to advance peace, resilience, and prosperity across the region and demonstrate that these partnerships deliver.”

The trip was announced even as China and Russia proclaimed a deep strategic partnership to balance what they portrayed as the malign global influence of the US.