New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar will be on an official visit to the US from June 30-July 2, at the invitation of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to participate in the next edition of the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (QFMM), scheduled to be held on July 1, an official said on Sunday.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) mentioned that the Quad Foreign Ministers will build upon the discussions held during the last QFMM, which took place in Washington on January 21 this year.

“They will exchange views on regional and global developments, particularly those concerning the Indo-Pacific, and review the progress made on various Quad initiatives in the run-up to the Quad Leaders’ Summit, which will be hosted by India. The Ministers are also expected to deliberate on new proposals aimed at advancing the shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the MEA statement read.

EAM Jaishankar will also be inaugurating an exhibition titled, “The Human Cost of Terrorism” at the United Nations Headquarters, New York on June 30.

“The Exhibition will highlight the devastating toll of heinous terrorist acts around the world, and the steps taken by the international community to combat terrorism,” the statement noted.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host the upcoming QFMM that will also include Foreign Ministers Penny Wong of Australia and Iwaya Takeshi of Japan next Tuesday in Washington.

Rubio’s first diplomatic engagement after he took office on January 21 was the Quad foreign ministers meeting, which took place a day after President Donald Trump was inaugurated.

Next week’s meeting “builds on that momentum to advance a free, open, and secure Indo-Pacific”, Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the Department of State, Thomas Pigott, said.

“This is what American leadership looks like: strength, peace, and prosperity,” he said.

Earlier, S. Jaishankar posted on X that he had a phone conversation with Wong on Thursday in preparation for the Quad meeting.

The Quad meeting will be the first time the ministers get together after the Pahalgam attack.

Before he goes to Washington, S. Jaishankar will inaugurate on Monday an exhibition at the United Nations on “The Human Cost of Terrorism”.

India’s UN Mission said it will “highlight the devastating toll of heinous terrorist acts around the world”.

It will come a day before Pakistan takes over the rotating presidency of the Security Council.

Next week’s Quad meeting is expected to lay the groundwork for the Summit to be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which will bring US President Donald Trump, and Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese of Australia and Shigeru Ishiba of Japan to India.

At their meeting in February, PM Modi said he looked forward to hosting Trump at the summit.

As the first foreign affairs meeting after Trump’s inauguration, it showed his administration’s regional priority as China’s threat loomed.

However, the world’s attention turned to the Middle East and Ukraine.

The conflict between Israel and Iran appears to have ebbed for now, freeing some bandwidth to turn attention to the Indo-Pacific, where China poses a challenge to the nations of the region.

–IANS

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