Minister of External Affairs Jaishankar joined US, Japan and host Australia at a meeting of foreign ministers Quad in Melbourne Friday to send clear signals to Beijing, underlining the pursuit of “shared vision” to enforce “international command based rules”, free from Coercion – one is based on respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty “.
But after the meeting, Jaishankar took a rather nuanced position in public than three other foreign ministers – US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi
In Myanmar, Jaishankar refers to the uprising challenge along the Indo-Myanmar border, and given the recent incident where a colonel and his family who put a child died with militants. He also stressed that India opposed “national sanctions”. The US has imposed sanctions on a number of leaders of Myanmar Junta.
He maintained a complete diplomatic silence on the Russian threat to attack Ukraine, while Blinken said there was “signs of disturbing Russian escalation, including new troops who arrived at the Ukrainian border” and that they “in the window when the invasion could begin at any time, and it included During the Olympics (winter) in Beijing “.
Hayashi Japan said Ukraine was discussed during the quad meeting and “territorial sovereignty and integrity” consistently supported by Japan.
Asked to comment on the recent meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Jaishankar said: “I will only add that when my colleagues observe, we are for something, not to someone.” The problem of Ukraine is also not part of a statement with Quad’s foreign minister.
Myanmar, however, thought in a joint statement: “We are still concerned about the crisis in Myanmar and calling for ending violence, the release of all who are arbitrary, including foreigners, and humanitarian access without obstacles. We reaffirm our support for ASEAN efforts To find solutions in Myanmar and request a military regime to immediately apply the consensus of the ASEAN five points and quickly restore Myanmar to the democratic line. We encourage the international community to work together to support the end of violence. “
After the meeting, Blinken said, “I think it is very clear that the development is in, very troubling, and disturbing to all of us. We have seen the Junta doubling repression, for violence.”
Jaisankar, in his response to the question, said: “I think we all agree to the importance of the ongoing transition of democracy in Myanmar. And clearly, the fact that the country has moved in a different direction is something that bothered us all. We all, I think, I think, It is also very strong back on ASEAN’s position on Myanmar and their efforts to get involved. “
“But we are worried, India is concerned about the neighbor of direct land border. We have some very specific concerns in Myanmar who also guides our thinking, concerns about rebels operating there a few months ago killed a very senior military officer and his family; Concerns about Covid and lack of vaccination on our shared borders; Concerns about the humanitarian situation arising from food shortages. “
“So I think they are also a concern that we take into account, and where we worry we do not follow the national sanctions policy,” he said, explaining that it did not support US policies on sanctions in Myanmar.
Hayashi confirmed that the leaders of four quad countries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will hold a summit in Japan in the first half of this year.
Jaisankar said: “As a leading democracy, we pursue our shared vision to enforce a rule-based international order, free of coercion – one based on respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, legal rules, transparency, freedom of navigation in the international sea and a peaceful dispute settlement.”
Quad’s statement also talks about “terrorism and violent extremism” and states: “We denounce the use of terrorist proxies for cross-border terrorism and urgent countries to work together to eliminate safe terrorist havenses; disrupt their terrorist and infrastructure and financial channels ; and stop cross-border terrorist movements. In this context, we call in all countries to ensure that the area under their control is not used to launch a terror attack and quickly bring to the court the actors of the attac
“We reaffirmed the curse of terrorist attacks in India, including Mumbai and Pathankot attacks 26/11,” he said, adding that they reaffirmed the resolution of UNSC 2593 (2021) that “Afghanistan regions should not be used to threaten or attack any country, take refuge Or train terrorists, or plan or finance terrorist acts, with unmet spaces into a direct threat to Indo-Pacific safety and security “.
In the vaccine, the statement said: “When we entered the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the quad partner collectively gave more than 500 million doses of vaccines. Together, we promised to contribute more than 1.3 billion doses of vaccines globally. pleased with the progress of the vaccine vaccine in expanding vaccine production in the biological facilities e ltd in India, which aims to provide at least 1 billion vaccines at the end of 2022. We look forward to the first quad delivery – the support of the vaccine in the first half of this year. “