US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi fist bump as they meet before the Quad meeting of foreign ministers in Melbourne, Australia on Feb, 11, 2022. - AP
MELBOURNE (Reuters) : Climate change, Covid and China's "coercion" in the Indo-Pacific will top the agenda when foreign ministers of the Quad - an informal grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the United States - convene in Melbourne on Friday (Feb 11), but the discussions will also expand into an escalating crisis between the West and Russia over Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Australia this week as Washington grapples with a dangerous standoff with Moscow, which has massed some 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border and stoked Western fears of an invasion. Russia denies it has such plans.
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