Noting that the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) has been and always will be an affirmative partnership, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said that the stronger the Quad gets more mutual benefits will be delivered.
Speaking at a joint press conference after the 4th Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Blinken highlighted his visit to Indonesia and said, I was in Jakarta back in December, and I set out the United States vision for a free and open Indo Pacific, which, more than any other region will shape the trajectory of the 21st century. We talk about a free and open Indo Pacific a lot, he said.
Talking about the Indo-Pacific partnership, US Secretary said, "It means people will be free in their daily lives and live in open societies. It means the countries will be able to choose their own path and partners. That means that goods, ideas, individuals will flow freely in the region, and the problems will be dealt with openly according to the rules everyone has agreed to," he said.
Blinken highlighted what the Quad ministers discussed during the meeting, saying "we will keep working to produce a billion doses of safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines by the end of this year, and to donate 1.2 billion additional doses while increasing our efforts to support the logistics, the infrastructure that's needed to get those shots into arms around the world the last mile".
Talking about the meeting on a COVID-19 global action plan, Blinken said, each of the Quad countries will play a key role in a meeting that we're convening on Monday, on a COVID-19 global action plan, which will drive greater leadership and coordination across regions and sectors to end the pandemic, will enhance our collaboration on disaster response and humanitarian assistance.
"We have agreed to deepen our efforts to shape the rules and standards around emerging technologies, cybersecurity, which will increasingly touch on all aspects of the lives of our fellow citizens, will expand our cooperation with other partners like ASEAN, whose centrality in the region is enduring, APEC, which the United States will host next year and in the Pacific Islands," he said.
While concluding the statement, Blinken stated that the Quad has been and always will be an affirmative partnership, rooted not in opposition to any country or group of countries, but rather in the belief that together we can do more to deliver broad-based progress for people in other countries in our countries across the Indo Pacific.
Addressing the challenges that real people face in their lives, he said that helping the people seize the opportunities while empowering them to chart their own course will be the Quad agenda.
( With inputs from ANI )
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