EAM Jaishankar holds talks with Australian counterpart Marise Payne in Tokyo

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday held bilateral talks with his Australian counterpart Marise Payne in Tokyo, covering a range of bilateral, regional and global issues.

Jaishankar and Payne travelled to Tokyo to attend a ministerial meeting of Qu or Qurilateral coalition comprising India, US, Australia and Japan. 'Qu' foreign ministers' meeting took place on Tuesday.

After his meeting with Payne, Jaishankar tweeted that progress in bilateral ties following virtual summit between prime ministers of two countries was reviewed. "Warm meeting with my good friend FM @MarisePayne of Australia. Reviewed progress in our bilateral ties after Virtual Summit between our PMs. Discussed expanding our cooperation in global affairs & regional issues. Will work toger more closely in multilateral forums," he said.

meeting took place in backdrop of frosty relations of India and Australia with China.

While India's ties with China sedived over five-month border standoff in eastern Lakh, relationship between Beijing and Canberra came under stress over tre related issues.

It is understood that Jaishankar and Payne discussed key regional security challenges.

defence and security ties between India and Australia have been on an upswing in last few years and both countries even vowed to work toger in Indo-Pacific, a region that witnessed growing Chinese assertiveness.

At an online summit on June 4 between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison, two countries elevated ir ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership and inked a landmark deal for reciprocal access to military bases for logistics support.

Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) allows militaries of two countries to use each or's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies besides facilitating scaling up of overall defence cooperation.

Im credits: @DrSJaishankar / Twitter

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