The Quad has operated well as a force for global good due to the strong bilateral ties between India, the US, Australia and Japan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar announced here on Friday.
Jaishankar talked shortly when he along with his peers from the US, Japan and Australia called on Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the sidelines of the 4th Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting here. “It is very appropriate that it should happen, Quad meetings and … we have bilaterals tomorrow also,” said Jaishankar, who is visiting Australia on his first journey to the country as external affairs minister.
On Saturday, he will co-head with his Australian counterpart Marise Payne in the 12th India-Australia foreign ministers’ framework discussion. Recalling the Quad conference between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, the then Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga and Morrison in September last year, Jaishankar told the summit gave us direction for the Quad to bring up and that he would expect to ensure, they are good at work and how much they have proceeded on this setup. He also said that he wish to recognise how much progress countries have made in their ties.
“I think Quad has worked so well as a force as my prime minister says ‘force for global good’ because of our bilateral relations have been very strong and surely why I expect the progress in our bilateral relations among the Quad as well,” he said further.
In his opening statements, Prime Minister Morrison announced that he finds it credibly reassuring that like-minded partners have assembled for the Quad meeting in Australia. He further noted that QUAD partnership doesn’t mean only in the security context. It means in times of economic partnership and cooperation, It represents the humanitarian partnership, health-each of us stands for a world order that favours freedom and especially in a free and open Indo-Pacific.
He announced that while the Quad partners share this viewpoint, “we look through the lens that very much has ASEAN partners at the centre of our understanding of the Indo Pacific vision. Australia was the first comprehensive strategic partner of ASEAN but we all share a deep passion for ASEAN.”
Morrison asserted that Quad partners were functioning together on so many shared missions which is what the Quad is all about and not only, of course, the regional security issues that connect the grouping together. The shared coalitions on everything from E-technologies to expanding the markets jointly but also on global challenges like climate or humanitarian problems or the great challenge of COVID-19 that has led so much of the endeavour that has been important to this Quad partnership.
Morrison emphasised that it was the democracies that furnished them with the framework and the organization of those important institutions “of our world and we would always work together to reinforce those…”
The four foreign ministers of the Quad grouping talked on regional strategic issues given their shared vision of a free, open and comprehensive Indo-Pacific region, against China’s hostile behaviour in the region.
