Jaishankar backs Quad on US visit
Minister says India has clarity on role in membership, underscores plan to ramp up production of Covid-19 vaccines
WASHINGTON: The informal Quad grouping in the strategically vital Indo-Pacific region comprising Australia, India, Japan and the US fills a “very important gap” that has emerged in contemporary times and New Delhi has clarity on its membership in it, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said.
The Quad aims at strengthening a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific amidst China’s aggressive actions in the region.
“Quad today fills a very important gap that has emerged in contemporary times, where there are global or regional requirements, which cannot be filled by a single country. It cannot even be filled by one bilateral relationship, and which is not being addressed at the multilateral level,” he told mediapersons after the conclusion of his meetings with senior members of the US administration on Friday.
Jaishankar, who is on an official trip to the US, is the first Indian minister to visit the country since Joe Biden became the President on January 20.
He asserted that India has clarity on its membership to
Quad, adding that he was personally involved with its progress over the past several years, including when he was India’s foreign secretary.
“We are members of Quad. When we are members of anything, we are very keen about it, otherwise, we won’t be its members. We have clarity on the Quad,” Jaishankar said.
Quad was one of the key issues of discussion between Jaishankar and top officials of the Biden administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
“Quad used to (and) still does discuss maritime security and connectivity, in recent years. It has started to discuss technology issues, supply chain issues and vaccine production. There are marine, sort of safety quality issues. So, there are a whole set
of issues,” the minister noted.
Without naming any country, Jaishankar said there are “many, many concerns” which have to be addressed by somebody.
“Big countries can do a large portion of it. Big relationships can add to it. But at the end of the day, most things work better if a group of countries sit together and say, okay, we all have similar positions and similar interests, and why don’t we all sit and address those sets of issues. So that is how we see Quad. Quad is an expression of the convergence of interests of many countries. It is in many ways a reflection of the contemporary nature of the world, where it is not a set of, you know…., at some stage, we have to put the Cold War behind us. It is only those who are stuck in the Cold War who cannot understand Quad,” he said.
The minister said he has underscored India’s desire to ramp up production of Covid-19 vaccines during his visit as the US holds an “absolutely indispensable” position in the supply chain.
The minister’s other objectives for the visit were to convey India’s appreciation for “very strong solidarity” shown by the United States with Indian as it deals with the second wave of Covid-19, and to engage with a new administration at a cabinet level and as, the minister put it they have their own world view and “they need to hear ours”.
Hours before Jaishankar arrived in Washington DC from New York, the first two-day leg of his US visit, Kurt Campbell, who is President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific czar, said plans were afoot to convene an in-person summit of the leaders of the Quad this fall, purveying an aggressively coalescing entity.
Initiated in 2007, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad is an informal grouping of the US, India, Australia and Japan.
The Quad member countries have resolved to uphold a rulesbased international order in the Indo-Pacific amid growing Chinese assertiveness in the region.
China, which is flexing its military muscles in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, is engaged in the contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea.
The country claims almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory. China has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region.
China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
China has vehemently opposed the formation of the Quad with a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman emphasising in March that exchanges and cooperation between countries should help expand mutual understanding and trust, instead of targeting or harming the interests of third parties.
The first summit of the Quad leaders was hosted by US President Joe Biden on March 12 and the virtual meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
The four Quad leaders have vowed to strive for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive, healthy, anchored by democratic values, and unconstrained by coercion, sending a clear message to China against its aggressive actions in the region.