U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Australia (AP) to prepare for a ministers’ summit of the so-called Quad, which comprises the United States, Australia, India, and Japan. The summit will weigh responses to the latest rapprochement between China and Russia and focus on the bloc’s cooperation on COVID-19 vaccine production (Hindustan Times). The Quad plans to produce 1.3 billion additional vaccine doses by the end of this year.
 
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said that meeting amid tensions between Russia and Ukraine shows Quad countries are “voting with their feet” and prioritizing issues relevant to the Indo-Pacific. After the summit, Blinken will travel to Fiji and meet with Pacific Islands leaders (Reuters) who have straddled relations with China and Western countries. He then flies to Hawaii to speak with Japanese and South Korean officials about North Korea’s nuclear program and other matters.

The wife of ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung apologized (Yonhap) for misusing public servants and corporate cards when her husband was a provincial governor. Hers is one of several scandals (WaPo) to rock South Korea’s presidential election.

Only five hospitals in Afghanistan still treat COVID-19, while thirty-three have closed in recent months due to a lack of doctors, medicine, and fuel for heating, the Associated Press reported.
 
India/South Korea: India summoned South Korea’s ambassador (Reuters) after a tweet from a Pakistani partner of South Korean automaker Hyundai expressed solidarity with people in the disputed Kashmir region. The post was taken down.

Israel is rolling out 5G mobile technology for its citizens, while the West Bank operates on 3G and Gaza on 2G, Bloomberg reported. Israel controls both territories’ frequencies and telecommunications infrastructure.
 
Iran: The country unveiled a new long-range missile (AP) a day after talks about a return to the 2015 nuclear deal resumed, state media reported.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will today rule (Al Jazeera) on a lawsuit from the Democratic Republic of Congo that seeks billions of dollars in reparations for Uganda’s role in a 1998–2003 war.
 
Sub-Saharan Africa: Between 2007 and 2020, Chinese development banks provided $23 billion worth of financing in the region, while banks in the United States, France, and Germany together provided less than half (Reuters) that amount, according to the Center for Global Development, a U.S.-based think tank.

A factory making Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine in the Dutch city of Leiden paused production (NYT) to focus on a vaccine unrelated to COVID-19. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is an important component in the UN-backed COVAX initiative to supply vaccines to poor countries, but COVAX learned of the pause from media reports.
 
U.S./Russia/Syria: The United States and Russia jointly proposed that the UN Security Council hold fewer sessions on Syria’s chemical weapons program and that it consolidate sessions on humanitarian relief and a political transition in the country, Foreign Policy reported.
 
CFR’s Steven A. Cook writes that the Biden administration’s Middle East policy is ruthless pragmatism.

Justice Minister Anibal Torres Vasquez took over as prime minister (Bloomberg) after Hector Valer Pinto resigned over domestic violence allegations after less than a week in office.
 
U.S./Mexico: U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) published an open letter calling for Secretary Blinken to pressure Mexico to better protect journalists (AP) after four were killed in January.

California and New Jersey announced similar moves (NYT) this week after months of pandemic restrictions prompted legal and interpersonal disputes.
 
This article discusses the effectiveness of masks and other tools for curbing COVID-19 outbreaks.