New Delhi (TIP)- The Quad grouping of India, the US, Japan and Australia has decided to sharpen focus on counter-terrorism even as a joint statement avoided mentioning Russia and took no stand on the Ukraine conflict though it condemned North Korea’s ballistic missile launches. On its main remit of the Indo-Pacific maritime domain, a meeting of Quad Foreign Ministers here on Thursday issued a joint statement that “strongly” opposes 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, the 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 that the Quad is not a military grouping. Their disclaimer came weeks before all the four will participate in their fourth successive joint naval exercise, this time off the Australian coast for the first time. A meeting of the Quad Maritime Security Working Group will also be hosted by the US this month.

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 general principles of freedom, rule of law, sovereignty and territorial integrity, peaceful settlement of disputes without resorting to threat or use of force.

It noted that terrorism has become increasingly diffuse and adapted to technologies such as drones and the internet to commit and finance terrorist acts. Discussions at the Quad Counter-Terrorism Policy Meeting and tabletop exercise in Australia has led to the establishment of the Quad Working Group on Counter-Terrorism which will hold its first meeting in the US this year.

It will have an open architecture and will also explore cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners with the purpose of countering new and emerging forms of terrorism, radicalisation to violence and violent extremism. The Quad also took a step forward in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance with the first tabletop exercise held here. The next step is to finalise the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for a coordinated response mechanism.

With India and Japan acting as the brakes, the Quad did not condemn the Myanmar junta but sought an end to violence and detentions.

On Ukraine, the joint statement said they “continued to discuss our responses to the conflict in Ukraine and the immense human suffering it is causing, and concurred that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible”. Source: TNS