TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The foreign ministers of Japan, the United States, Australia and India may meet in Tokyo in October, government sources said Saturday, adding that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga could hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the sidelines.
The talks with Pompeo would be the first opportunity for Suga to hold a face-to-face meeting with the U.S. state secretary since succeeding Shinzo Abe as leader.
Pompeo, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and their Australian and Indian counterparts Marise Payne and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, respectively, will gather at a time when China is working to grow its regional clout, the sources said.
The four countries last held a quadripartite meeting of foreign ministers in September last year in New York around the time of the U.N. General Assembly.
The nations' top diplomats are likely to reaffirm the importance of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific, a concept that Tokyo and Washington have pursued amid China's growing assertiveness in the region, while discussing cooperation on measures against the novel coronavirus pandemic, the sources said.
