Quad members to sharpen focus on tackling terror

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, March 3

The Quad grouping of India, the US, Japan and Australia has decided to sharpen its focus on counter-terrorism even as a joint statement avoided mentioning Russia and took no stand on the Ukraine conflict but concurred that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons was “inadmissible”, while also condemning ballistic missile launches by North Korea.

On its main remit of the Indo-Pacific maritime domain, Quad Foreign Ministers in a joint statement after a meeting here on Friday “strongly” opposed any unilateral actions to change the status quo or increase tensions in South and East China Seas. It also expressed “serious concern” at the militarisation of disputed features, dangerous use of coast guard vessels and maritime militia, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resource exploitation activities. In a broadside at Pakistan, the joint statement denounced the use of terrorist proxies and committed to promote accountability for terrorist attacks, including 26/11 Mumbai, “which claimed lives of citizens from all Quad countries”.

At the Raisina Dialogue shortly after their Quad meeting, Foreign Ministers S Jaishankar, Penny Wong, Anthony Blinken and Hayashi Yoshimasa were unanimous in stating the Quad was not a military grouping. Their disclaimer came weeks before all four nations participate in their fourth successive joint naval exercise, this time off the Australian coast for the first time. The same line-up of Quad Foreign Ministers, which had met last September in New York, reiterated their backing for reforms of the UN Security Council and support for the principles of freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Discussions at the Quad Counter-Terrorism Policy Meeting and tabletop exercise in Australia have led to the establishment of the Quad Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, which will hold its first meeting in the US this year, said the joint statement.

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