India, US, Australia, Japan to discuss China's growing power in Quad talks

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, said they will lead a regional initiative called "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" aimed at countering China's growing assertiveness, a primary issue they'll discuss on Tuesday with the top envoys from Australia and India.

The first in-person talks among the foreign ministers because the coronavirus pandemic began also brings together Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

Motegi, opening his working lunch with Pompeo prior to the so-called Quad talks, said, "I am hoping Japan and the united states will lead the international society to achieve the Free and Open Indo-Pacific."

He also said the Japan-US alliance is still "the cornerstone of peace and stability in the region" under new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga who took office on September 16, vowing to transport on his predecessor Shinzo Abe's hawkish security and diplomatic stance.

Pompeo welcomed Suga's recent description of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific as the building blocks of regional peace and stability and that "I could not agree him more."

On his way to Tokyo, Pompeo told reporters that the four countries desire to involve some "significant achievements" at the meeting, but did not elaborate.

Japanese officials say they'll discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, in addition to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) initiative for greater security and financial cooperation that Japan and the united states have already been pushing to gather "like-minded" countries that share concerns about China's growing assertiveness and influence.

The talks come weeks prior to the US presidential election and amid tensions between the US and China over the virus, trade, technology, Hong Kong, Taiwan and human rights.

Pompeo is attending the Quad meeting, though he cancelled subsequent planned visits to South Korea and Mongolia after President Donald Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19. The president premiered on Monday and returned to the White House.

The talks follow a recently available flareup in tensions between China and India over their border issue. Relations between Australia and China have also deteriorated in recent months.

Japan, meanwhile, can be involved about China's claim to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea.

Japan also considers China's growing military activity to become a security threat. Japan's total annual defence policy paper in July accused China of unilaterally changing the status quo in the South China Sea, where it has generated and militarised manmade islands and is assertively pressing its claim to practically all the sea's key fisheries and waterways.

Suga, who had been chief Cabinet secretary under Abe, will make his in-person diplomatic debut as prime minister when he meets the Quad ministers. He'll also hold separate talks with Pompeo on deepening the Japan-US alliance and the FOIP.

"The world is possibly becoming a lot more unpredictable and uncontrollable because of heightening selfish nationalism and growing tension between your US and China," Suga told Japanese media on Monday.

He said he'll pursue diplomacy that is predicated on the Japan-US alliance as a cornerstone and "strategically promote the FOIP," while establishing stable relations with neighbours including China and Russia.

He said he also plans to market the FOIP throughout a planned visit to Southeast Asia later this month.

Japan sees the FOIP as essential to have access to sea lanes completely to Middle East, an integral way to obtain oil for the resource-poor island nation.

Suga has little experience in diplomacy. Balancing between your US, Japan's main security ally, and China, its top trading partner, will be tough, analysts say.

Japan hopes to regularize the Quad foreign ministers' talks and broaden their cooperation with other countries. But each Quad member has its own political stance toward China and it could be difficult to agree on concrete steps despite the fact that they share the perception of China as a common threat, analysts say.