INTERNATIONAL: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Foreign Ministers of Japan, Yoshimasa Hayashi and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar prior to their Quad meeting in Melbourne on Friday, February 11.

Climate change, COVID-19 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, but the discussions will also expand into an escalating crisis between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

Asked by reporters on Friday if confrontation with China in the Indo-Pacific was inevitable, Blinken has replied "nothing is inevitable."

The ministers will work towards furthering goals but are unlikely to announce new pledges, leaving that until a May summit of Quad leaders in Japan that President Joe Biden plans to attend.

Blinken's trip comes days after China and Russia declared last week a "no limits" strategic partnership, their most detailed and assertive statement to work together - and against the United States - to build a new international order based on their own interpretations of human rights and democracy.

U.S.-Chinese ties are at their lowest point in decades as the world's top two economies disagree on issues ranging from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the South China Sea and China's treatment of ethnic Muslims.

Critics say the lack of U.S. economic engagement is a major weakness in Biden's approach to the region, where China remains to be the top trading partner for many of the Indo-Pacific nations.