Quad foreign ministers meet on the sidelines of UNGA, agree to make it annual event

Foreign ministers of the Quad countries — India, Australia, Japan and the US — met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings in New York on Friday and said they hoped to make it an annual affair. The countries also signed Quad Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Partnership for the Indo-Pacific, which was discussed and agreed upon at the Tokyo summit of the Quad.

Quad foreign ministers plan to meet every year now and announced the same at their meeting on Friday.

"This is the first time that the foreign ministers from the Quad countries have gotten together at the United Nations General Assembly, so my hope is that this will become a regular feature of these meetings," said US secretary of state Anthony Blinken, who called and hosted the meeting, in public remarks ahead of the signing of the agreement.

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Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar agreed and said,"I think it's a great idea that we meet regularly on the sidelines of the UNGA, but in our respective countries as well."

Jaishankar further said that the Friday meeting has come at a time the world is passing through "a very difficult period".

"Given the turbulent times, I think it's particularly important that we go further in the constructive agenda that we have set for ourselves, that we work together on the delivery of public goods, that our efforts and particularly what we are signing today, the HDR (humanitarian and disaster relief) Partnership, which we discussed and finalised in Tokyo is I think, extremely timely," he added.

Meanwhile, Blinken said, "We are looking forward to continuing to explore the many ways that the Quad enables us to deepen our cooperation. Our leaders have set out a very significant agenda for us when they met. We are following through on a lot of that work."

Australian foreign minister Penny Wong said, "We do know our region is being reshaped, economically and strategically. And we are here because we want to work with the countries represented before you to better navigate this period of change together. So this is the heart of the Quad to create the region we all aspire to and it's a great honour and privilege to be here with my counterparts today."

Japan's foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi took a veiled dig at China and said, "Today the world is witnessing direct attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force. The free and open international order based on the rule of law is under threat."

"So it's extremely significant for us to demonstrate together to the international community, our firm commitment to the principles of the UN charter and free and open Indo-Pacific order," he added.

In a joint statement, the four countries welcomed progress in delivering on Quad commitments. In particular, they noted the signing of the disaster relief agreement and that they look forward to the "counter-terrorism tabletop exercise" being hosted by Australia later in 2022.

(With inputs from agencies)