As the pandemic started, every country had tensions with China. Foreign ministers from four Indo-Pacific countries known as the Quad group are meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday for discussions that Japan believes will improve their involvement in a regional initiative termed as “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” aimed at countering China’s growing assertiveness. The meeting will be the first in-person talks among the foreign ministers since the coronavirus pandemic broke out. It also brings together US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

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Japanese executives assume that they will discuss the influence of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) drive for more comprehensive security and economic assistance that Japan and the US have been pushing to bring together “like-minded” countries that share concerns about China’s growing assertiveness and influence. On his way to Tokyo, Pompeo told reporters that the four countries hope to have some “significant achievements” at the meeting, but did not elaborate much.

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The talks come weeks before the US presidential election and amid escalating 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 canceled subsequent planned visits to South Korea and Mongolia after President Donald Trump got hospitalized after getting diagnosed with coronavirus. The discussions follow a recent flareup in tensions between China and India over their debated Himalayan border. Relations between Australia and China have also deteriorated in recent months.

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