New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar strongly pitched for the Quad — consisting of the US, India, Australia and Japan — as the platform to ensure the Indo-Pacific remains free and open.
The minister was speaking on Monday at the Quad foreign ministers meeting in Tokyo, which will lay the groundwork ahead of the leaders’ summit to be hosted in India later this year, despite a series of delays.
“As political democracies, pluralistic societies and market economies, there is the key question of upholding a rules-based order. It is only our collaboration that can ensure that the Indo-Pacific remains free, remains open, stable, secure and prosperous,” Jaishankar said in his opening remarks.
Since 2019, Quad foreign ministers have met annually to discuss and drive cooperation on key regional strategic challenges. They last met on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York last September. The Quad has increasingly been seen as a counterbalance to a rising China in the Indo-Pacific.
In his remarks, Jaishankar highlighted the need for “transparent” digital partnerships and de-risking economic growth in the region.
“A major challenge is to ensure global economic growth, while also de-risking it,” said the Indian foreign minister. “Supply chains are a particular focus for resilience, just as we push for trusted and transparent digital partnerships…we are in the midst of a re-globalisation. At the same time, it is only our collective endeavours that can proof the international system against disruptions, man-made or natural,” he added.
The Quad members have maintained that the grouping is not aimed at any single country. However, China has described it as a “bloc” for confrontation, and one that falls under the “Cold War mentality”.
Ahead of the Quad foreign ministers meet in Tokyo, foreign ministers of US and Japan held bilateral talks where they described China as the “greatest strategic challenge” facing the region.
A joint statement is yet to be issued by the four foreign ministers after Monday’s meet.
The joint statement issued by Quad foreign ministers last September had made a special mention urging countries against the transfer or procurement of arms from North Korea. It came a week after North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia, raising concerns about potential weapons transfer deals between the two countries.
In her remarks, Australia Foreign Minister Penny Wong highlighted the need for maritime cooperation and remarked that the Indo-Pacific should be a region where “no country dominates and no country is dominated”.
“We need] a region that is peaceful and that is predictable, that is governed by accepted rules and norms… A region where sovereignty is respected and competition is managed responsibly. Where size or power do not determine a country’s fate,” she said.
Ahead of the Quad meeting, Jaishankar held bilateral talks with his US counterpart Antony Blinken at a time when relations have been tense following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia.
“Secretary Blinken underscored the importance of realising a just and enduring peace for Ukraine consistent with the UN Charter,” according to a readout of the conversation from the US State Department.
That said, Modi is likely to visit Ukraine in the last week of August. This would be his first trip to the country since its war with Russia began.
Also read: Why’s China going all out to woo Australia? It’s a deliberate bid to weaken Quad cooperation