EAM Jaishankar stresses Quad nations' role in ensuring a free and secure Indo-Pacific at Tokyo meeting

Only Quad collaboration can ensure freedom, stability and security in Indo Pacific region: Jaishankar

It is only the Quad nations' collaboration that can ensure that the Indo Pacific region remains free, open, stable and secure, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday, insisting that the grouping is here to stay and to grow.

In his opening statement at the Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting in Tokyo, Jaishankar said the Quad's commitment to doing global good has a resonance far beyond the region.

"It is only our collaboration that can ensure that the Indo Pacific remains free, remains open, stable, secure, prosperous," he said.

"It is therefore essential that our political understanding strengthens our economic partnerships grow and technology collaborations expand and our people-to-people comfort intensifies. Our meeting should send a clear message that the quad is here to stay here to do and here to grow," he said.

The long-pending idea of forming the Quad to create a new plan to maintain the important maritime lanes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence took shape in November 2017 with the participation of Australia, Japan, India, and the US.

At the meeting point of the Pacific and Indian Oceans is the South China Sea.

Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and China all have counterclaims over parts of the South China Sea that China claims as their own.

(with PTI inputs)