The four-nation Quad grouping signed the Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief Guidelines at a meeting of their foreign ministers in New York on Friday, a move welcomed by India as “extremely timely”.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that this a “particularly timely meeting” because the world is going through a very difficult period.
“We have had a few years of the Quad. Given the turbulent times, it is particularly important that we the Quad go further in the constructive agenda that we have set for ourselves, that we work together really delivering the public goods,” he said.
“Particularly what we are signing today is extremely timely. And today, I think this is also an opportunity for us together to discuss how to strengthen the multilateral system,” he said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the meeting is evidence that the Quad is strong and getting stronger.
“Strengthening our multilateral cooperation. I think our countries know very well that the significant challenges that we face as well as the opportunities that are before us demand more than ever that we work together,” he said.
“No one of us alone can do what is necessary to meet these challenges. And seize these opportunities,” he said.
Quad grouping comprises Japan, India, Australia and the United States. The four countries had in 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.
