New Delhi: Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Tuesday said that the Quad nations want the grouping to be “strong and effective” so that they can focus on delivering and continuing its momentum, while stressing the need for a free, open, peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
In her opening remarks at the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday, Penny Wong said, “We are four sovereign nations. We have our own histories, our own interests, but there is great alignment between our interests, and we all share a vision for the Indo-Pacific, a region that is free and open, a region that is peaceful, stable and prosperous, and we each bring our unique perspective, experiences and strengths together as we work to achieve such a region. As the quad, we’ve delivered concrete results when we’ve responded to natural disasters. when we’ve mobilised to support communities affected by things like the earthquake in Myanmar or the landslide in Papua New Guinea.”
“We’ve also cooperated on critical infrastructure, undersea cables. We’ve cooperated on maritime security, and we’ve cooperated on critical minerals. We all want the Quad to be as strong and as effective as we can make it, focused on delivering, and we are determined to continue its momentum. This is the future we want for our region, a peaceful, stable, prosperous region, and today we continue the work to build that,” she added.
She praised India’s role in the region and highlighted the importance of the meeting.
“We meet in the world’s largest democracy and a power that is so important in the shaping of the Indo-Pacific and the world, and to Secretary Rubio, can I acknowledge that since you have been in office the leadership that you have shown on the Quad, I think your very first meeting after you were sworn-in, we appreciate it and Minister Motegi has been there from the very beginning. So, he’s one of the original Quad ministers, so thank you for your leadership as well,” she said.
Referring to the Quad meeting held in Washington in 2025, Wong recalled External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s remarks on working together to ensure that Indo-Pacific has freedom of choice on its security and sovereign interests.
Penny Wong said, “I wanted to start by reflecting on a point that Minister Jaishankar made at one of our earlier Quads in Washington I think and you spoke about choices and about doing what we can together to ensure that the Indo-Pacific and the countries within it have the freedom of choice on their security and on searching their sovereign interests, the freedom of choice on their development and on the future of the region we all share and that is central to how Australia approaches our engagement in the Quad.”
“It’s why this partnership and this meeting matter so much to Australia. It matters to us. It matters to the region, and therefore it matters to the world. I think we all understand we meet today with a region that is under pressure, accelerating contest, a deteriorating strategic environment and acute economic stress,” she added.
(IANS)
