India News | Foreign Ministers of Quad Countries Expected to Meet in Melbourne This Month

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) A meeting of the foreign ministers of the Quad countries is expected to be held later this month in Melbourne, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

The foreign ministers of Quad, comprising India, the US, Australia and Japan, had last met virtually in February 2021.

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"The next meeting is expected to be held later this month in Melbourne. We hope to share an update with you on this soon," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing.

In March last year, US President Joe Biden hosted the first-ever summit of the Quad leaders in the virtual format that was followed by an in-person summit in Washington in September for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had travelled to the US.

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The Quad has been focusing on cooperation in areas such as producing vaccines, connectivity projects, facilitating the mobility of students, and looking at promoting startups and technology collaboration.

To a separate question on shipment of 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan via Pakistan, Bagchi said the process is underway.

"The government is committed to extending humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. We have been sharing information about the shipment of medicines and vaccines. The process to procure the wheat and its transportation is still underway," he said.

Afghan Ambassador Farid Mamundzay said on Wednesday that India's humanitarian aid of 50,000 tonnes of wheat to the Afghan people is likely to be transported to Afghanistan from next week, and the delivery is set to be completed in a month's time.

India had sent a proposal to Pakistan on October 7 seeking the transit facility to send 50,000 tonnes of wheat to the people of Afghanistan via Pakistani soil, and it received a positive response from Islamabad on November 24.

Following the Pakistani response, both sides were in touch to finalise the modalities for the transportation of the shipments.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)