US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to travel to India ahead of third QUAD Summit

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, is scheduled to visit India in early March, news agency ANI reported. The US State Department is considering scheduling Blinken's arrival in New Delhi in the first week of March. This will be in the run-up to President Joe Biden convening a meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogues (QUAD) leaders. "Secretary Blinken will be meeting his Indian counterpart to lay the groundwork for the upcoming QUAD leaders summit in May 2023," a source told ANI. 

The US Secretary of State is also scheduled to attend the Raisina Dialogue, a multilateral conference scheduled in New Delhi from March 2 to March 4. The Raisina Dialogue is an annual conference on geopolitics and geo-economics organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), an independent think tank, in association with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). 

Big QUAD meet on the cards
 

The next QUAD meeting will be the third annual summit of members -- India, Australia, Japan and the United States. The last summit took place in Tokyo while the next summit may be held in Sydney, although an official declaration is yet to be made. "The summit is expected to be held in Sydney and for now, most likely all four leaders will be present in person for the summit. President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will travel to Sydney to meet Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to further cement the Quad cooperation," ANI reported citing a person familiar with the developments. 

Another person familiar with the developments spoke to ANI, "The summit is expected to be held in Sydney and for now, most likely all four leaders will be present in person for the summit. President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will travel to Sydney to meet Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to further cement the Quad cooperation."

When S Jaishankar met Antony Blinken last 

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India Summit in Combodia in November last year. The two leaders discussed the conflict in Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific region and bilateral ties between India and the United States. 

Antony Blinken is also scheduled to travel to China to continue discussions on the US' most complex relationship. However, a the visit is yet to be formally confirmed.