By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong met her Indian and Japanese counterparts in Washington and said the invitation for Quad foreign ministers to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration showed an “iron-clad commitment” to close cooperation in the Indo Pacific region.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio appears on track for confirmation as Trump’s secretary of state on Monday, clearing the way for a meeting of Quad foreign ministers the following day, people familiar with the matter previously said.
The grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. was formed amid shared concerns about China’s growing power.
“It’s a demonstration of the collective commitment of all countries to the Quad, an iron-clad commitment in this time where close cooperation in the Indo-Pacific is so important,” Wong said on Sunday of the foreign ministers’ invitation to Washington.
Wong said she would also meet…
