Eye on China, EAM S Jaishankar bats for territorial integrity, freedom of navigation as Quad ministers meet in Melbourne
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar, who is attending the Quad summit batting for free and open Indo-Pacific called for the need to uphold international order based on respect for territorial integrity, sovereignty, and freedom of navigation. Foreign ministers of Japan, India, and the United States attended the fourth Quad Foreign Ministers meeting in Melbourne.
“Since our last interaction in Feb 2021, the geo-political and geo-economic global scenario has become more complex. As leading democracies, we pursue our shared vision of upholding a rules-based international order free from coercion plan based on respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, rule of law, transparency, freedom of navigation in the international seas and peaceful resolution,” Jaishankar said.
Addressing a joint briefing after the meeting, Jaishankar said that the FMs reviewed Quad’s ongoing efforts to combat the COVID pandemic and agreed to expedite delivery of safe and affordable vaccines, support capacity building, and augment infrastructure for last-mile delivery.
“In this context, we will continue to support our ASEAN partners in their efforts to uphold peace, stability, and prosperity in the region. Their centrality is important to recognize and reiterate,” he said.
Progress because of strong bilateral ties: Jaishankar
Addressing his counterparts at the 4th Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Melbourne, Australia, Jaishankar said that the progress made by Quad is due to the bilateral relations between individual countries of the group.
“Quad, we’ve progressed a lot and much of that is due to the fact that we’ve all devoted a lot of time, energy, attention to that. We’ve made it into concrete actionable propositions our teams have worked on…A big part of that is because we’ve strong bilateral relationships,” Jaishankar said.
Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the meeting.
At the Quad meet, Blinken said that people deserve to live freely, countries deserve to have the freedom to work together and associate with whom they choose. “Together we can demonstrate that we are effective in bringing benefits to all of our people,” he said.
Addressing the meeting, Blinken said that the meeting today was about building on progress. “One is, ending the COVID-19 pandemic together. We are making progress towards our goal of producing 1 billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2022 in addition,” Blinken said.
Fourth Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting
During the summit, Quad, a partnership of four nations will be discussing the progress made by the platform during their telephonic conversations. They will also be building on discussions regarding space, education, healthcare, and infrastructure among others. This is the first time that the Foreign Ministers of Japan, the US, India, and Australia are meeting since their two summits last year.
