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Indo-Pacific challenges remain core agenda of Quad: India
The situation in Ukraine figured in the discussions between the leaders of India, Australia, Japan and the US at Thursday's Quad virtual summit, said external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.
India on Friday said the Indo-Pacific and its challenges remain at the core of the agenda for the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad, though the world community is currently grappling with the crisis in Ukraine.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the situation in Ukraine had figured in the discussions between the leaders of India, Australia, Japan and the US at the virtual summit of the Quad on Thursday.
“But let me just emphasise that the Indo-Pacific remains the core focus of the Quad’s agenda and you will see that coming in terms of positive activities, initiatives and efforts all four countries are making,” he told a media briefing in response to a question on whether the Quad leaders had discussed the possibility of a negotiated settlement of the Ukraine crisis.
The previously unscheduled Quad Summit was convened by US President Joe Biden to discuss the war against Ukraine and its implications for the Indo-Pacific. A statement issued by the Indian side after the meeting had quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi as saying that the Quad “must remain focused on its core objective of promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific”.
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A joint readout issued after the virtual summit contained no reference to Russia, whom Australia, Japan and the US have condemned for attacking Ukraine. The three countries have imposed a range of sanctions on Russian leaders and entities and sought to unite more nations against President Vladimir Putin.
India is the only member of Quad to have largely refrained from criticising Russia’s actions in Ukraine, reflecting New Delhi’s long-standing defence and strategic ties with Moscow. In recent statements at the UN, however, it called for respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states in the context of the developments in Ukraine.
Bagchi said, “From our perspective, while of course there’s a very serious situation...in Ukraine, it’s not as though challenges in other parts of the world have vanished.”
Also Read | Quad discusses Ukraine war, concrete steps in Indo-Pacific
He added, “In the Indo-Pacific, the challenge is there and the agenda that the leaders of these four countries have signed up to – that is...Indo-Pacific being at the core of the Quad’s agenda – is something that they want to push ahead with.”
Bagchi said the message was “very clear” – that although there is “an emergency, a crisis, all four countries are trying to take forward the agenda they defined when they met physically in September 2021 in Washington”.
Biden said in a tweet that he met the Quad leaders “about Russia’s ongoing attack on Ukraine and our commitment to sovereignty and territorial integrity around the world, including in the Indo-Pacific”.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tweeted that unilateral changes to the status quo “by force or coercion like the recent Russian aggression against #Ukraine are also unacceptable in the Indo-Pacific”.
