Quad fills crucial gap: Jaishankar

29: The informal grouping of four countries in the Indo-Pacific region comprising Australia, India, Japan and the United States fills a very important gap that has emerged in contemporary times, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Saturday. “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 a group of Indian reporters as he concluded most of his meetings here. Jaishankar, who is on an official trip to the US, is the first Indian Cabinet minister to visit the country since Joe Biden became US President on

January 20.

He asserted that India has clarity on its membership to Quad, adding that he had been personally involved with its progress over the past several years, including when he was India’s foreign secretary. The Quad aims at strengthening a rules-based order in the strategically-important Indo-Pacific amidst China’s aggressive actions in the region. “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 underlined.

Quad was one of the key issues of discussion between Jaishankar and US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.