NEW DELHI: India joined other Quad members in calling for a “just and lasting peace in Ukraine”, and respect for a rules-based order in the South and East China Seas, in the first such statement by the group that is seen to criticise both Russia and China, The Hindu said on Friday.

The statement released after the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting hosted by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Delhi, was met with sharp responses from both Russia and China, who called the Quad grouping disruptive and “exclusionary”.

The meeting was attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi. The meeting also announced the setting up of a Quad working group on counter-terrorism. “We 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,” said the joint statement after the sixth Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting on margins of G-20 foreign ministers’ moot.

“We underscored the need for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in accordance with international law, including the UN Charter,” the statement added, calling for respect for “sovereignty, territorial integrity, transparency and peaceful resolution of disputes”.

Russia and China term Quad grouping disruptive and exclusionary

The 18-paragraph statement called for greater Quad collaboration in support of the Asean Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, and opposed any “unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo or increase tensions in the area”, understood to indicate recent tensions over Taiwan.

“We express 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,” the statement added, in reference to alleged actions in the South and East China Seas.

It also announced that the “Quad Maritime Security Working Group” would meet in Washington later this month. While the Quad Foreign Ministers’ language on China and the Indo-Pacific has been sharp in the past, this is the first time a direct reference to the war in Ukraine has been made in the FMs’ statement, and comes a day after Russia and China prevented consensus on a statement at the G-20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticised the Quad for “playing one country against another”. He also slammed the Quad proposal for Asean cooperation, which he said was an attempt to cut Russia and China out of the East Asia summits.

“We never engage in playing any country against any other country but this is unfortunately being tried by some other outside players in the context of so-called Indo-Pacific strategy, using Quad not for economical purpose but trying to militarise it,” Mr Lavrov said.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2023