The grouping of the U.S., Japan, India and Australia known as the Quad will hold a foreign ministers meeting in Tokyo on Monday. The Bank of Japan is due to announce its monetary policy decision on Tuesday.
On the business front, many high-profile companies, including Toyota Motor, Samsung Electronics and Indonesia’s GoTo, are scheduled to announce their financial results.
Foreign ministers from Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. will meet in Tokyo for their eighth summit, to discuss economic, cyber and maritime security in the Indo-Pacific. The ministers are expected to oppose the growing militarization of the South China Sea, pledge further collaboration on preventing cyber attacks in the region, and discuss the establishment and maintenance of resilient supply chains. The gathering will follow meetings between the Japanese, U.S. and South Korean defense ministers on Sunday, and will set the stage for a Quad leaders’ meeting in India later this year.
Amid escalating tensions in the South China Sea, the Philippines and the U.S. are holding two-plus-two talks in Manila. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet with their Filipino counterparts. The meeting comes on the heels of similar talks between Manila and Tokyo in early July. The discussions aim to bolster the U.S.-Philippine alliance, which has deepened significantly under the Marcos Jr. administration as the country shifts its foreign policy closer to Washington.
The Bank of Japan will decide in a two-day policy meeting ending Wednesday on a tapering plan for its bond purchases in the latest step for policy normalization. Investors are watching whether the BOJ will couple the tapering announcement with a rate hike. In separately released economic projections, the central bank is expected to indicate that inflation is trending in line with its forecast.
Myanmar’s military regime is expected to hold a National Defense and Security Council meeting on Wednesday to decide whether to extend the state of emergency, which is renewed every six months. The regime insists the declaration of the emergency is the constitutional basis on which it took power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021. According to the constitution, if the declaration is terminated without extension, the NDSC will hold general elections to form a parliament within six months.
