New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, said on Thursday that Quad nations are aligned in advancing closer collaboration and delivering results for a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Gor made the statement following his meeting with Australia’s High Commissioner to India Philip Green and Japan’s Ambassador to India Keiichi Ono, where they discussed upcoming Quad initiatives.
Quad brings together four countries – India, Australia, Japan, and the United States, with a commitment to work as a force for global good and to support an open, free, and inclusive Indo-Pacific that is prosperous and resilient.
“Productive discussions today with Australia’s High Commissioner to India Philip Green and Japan’s Ambassador to India Ono Keiichi on upcoming Quad initiatives and meetings. Together with India, our four nations are aligned in advancing closer collaboration and delivering results for a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Gor wrote on X following the meeting.
Last month, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio participated in the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila.
The ministers reaffirmed their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and underlined their strong support for ASEAN’s unity and centrality in the region. In a joint statement, EAM Jaishankar, Wong, Motegi and Rubio underscored the Quad’s strong resolve for the Indo-Pacific region’s prosperity and its cooperation with ASEAN and its member states.
“As ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partners, we, the Secretary of State of the United States and the Foreign Ministers of Australia, India, and Japan, met today in Manila to reaffirm our commitment to strengthening a free and open Indo-Pacific and our unwavering support for ASEAN unity and centrality. We are deeply invested in the region’s success and in cooperating with ASEAN and its member states,” read the joint statement issued following the Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting in Manila.
The foreign ministers of member states also discussed regional challenges and ways to strengthen support for the “practical implementation” of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) through “shared priorities of maritime and transnational security, economic prosperity and security, critical and emerging technologies, and humanitarian assistance and emergency response.”
The statement noted that Quad remains united in its conviction that “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain underpin the security and prosperity of the region.”
–IANS
akl/as