Scott Morrison set to go to Washington later this year for Quad talks with US, India & Japan

Scott Morrison’s first face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden at the G7 summit is looming as a precursor to a Washington visit.

SCott Morrison will meet Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday night. Picture: Getty Images

Scott Morrison’s first face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden at the weekend’s G7 summit in Cornwall is looming as a precursor to the Prime Minister travelling to Washington DC late this year.

With NATO and G7 leaders set to refocus their strategic approach on China, Russia, cyber threats and the Indo-Pacific region, US ­officials are moving to lock in the first in-person leaders’ summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.

Mr Morrison, Mr Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshi­hide Suga had pledged to meet in person at the G7 summit in Cornwall after holding an inaugural Quad leaders’ meeting virtually in March.

Mr Modi, who along with Mr Morrison was invited by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to attend the G7 as a plus-member, has been forced to appear at the summit virtually following the ­extensive Covid-19 outbreak in India.

Mr Biden’s Indo-Pacific adviser Kurt Campbell on Tuesday flagged the first in-person leaders’ summit of the Quad could happen late this year.

“Our goal is to hold an in-person Quad meeting … here in Washington in the fall (autumn) with all leaders in attendance,” he said.

Mr Morrison, whose previous trip to the US involved a series of events with Donald Trump, including a gala function at the White House, last year invited Mr Biden to travel to Australia to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance.

Pending an early election, the next major events for Mr Morrison and Mr Biden are likely to be the Rome G20 leaders’ summit in late October and the Glasgow UN Climate Change conference in early November.

Quad, NATO and G7 nations have collectively turned their attention to ASEAN, the bloc of Southeast Asian nations driving unprecedented economic growth in the Indo-Pacific straddled between China and Western powers.

Mr Morrison spoke at the Perth USAsia Centre before he flew out to Singapore on Wednesday, and told attendees ASEAN was “the most important meeting within our region” and Mr Biden understood its significance.

“It brings together so many economies from so many different perspectives. We take that very, very seriously,” he said.

“And I greatly appreciate it, from the President, his understanding of that and the importance of ASEAN and how it’s about enabling the nations, their capability, their self-sufficiency, their sovereignty, their independence.”

On the first stop of an eight-day overseas trip, Mr Morrison will meet Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, a central figure inside ASEAN, at The Istana on Thursday night.

ASEAN, of which Singapore is a founding member, is hotly prized by both China and the West, with renewed efforts from Britain, France and the US to join Australia in ramping-up ties with the Southeast Asian nations.

A key focus of the Quad following the March meeting has been countering China’s vaccine diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific, with Beijing establishing a foothold in delivering millions of jabs to developing nations.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi this week co-chaired the special ASEAN-China foreign ministers’ meeting in celebration of 30 years of relations. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said over the past 30 years, “China and ASEAN have pressed ahead hand in hand”.

Mr Morrison has been invited to deliver a major address to the G7 summit at the weekend during a key session focused on “open societies and economies”.

The Prime Minister is expected to speak to Australia’s experience, and how democratic market economies must be ready to push back and respond to different models being promoted by authoritarian states.

Mr Morrison, who is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with Mr Suga, South Korea President Moon Jae-in and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the G7 sidelines, will travel to London and Paris to hold one-on-one meetings with Mr Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron.

With Britain and France experiencing deteriorating relations with Beijing and both countries having historic roots in the Indo-Pacific, the leaders are expected to discuss how to bolster defence, security and strategic partnerships in the region, with both Mr Johnson and Mr Macron already committing military hardware.