External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday asserted that Quad has become a significant and substantive platform for four large resident Indo-Pacific vibrant democracies, that are seeking to uphold an open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

His comments came amid Beijing’s repeated criticism of Quad as a grouping aimed at containing China and its continued aggressive posturing in the Indo-Pacific.

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”Like any new mechanism or platform, the Quad too is a product of its times. It emerged from global necessities, faltered, for some time, due to a complexity of reasons and was then reincarnated with new governments and different circumstances,” Mr Jaishankar said at the inaugural Quad Think Tank Forum here.

The Minister said the four-nation grouping, comprising India, Australia, Japan and the US, is there for global good and for global commons. The Quad has grown so rapidly because all four governments have behaved differently from how they normally do.

”Quad is an overhead light, creative, flexible, nimble, responsive and open-minded enterprise. These are not adjectives we normally associate with the bureaucracy. So, even as we assess its achievements, some compliments at least are due to all those who have shepherded it, who have grown it, who have actually made it unfold with such rapidity,” he added.

He said the Quad focused initially on addressing the region’s most pressing needs and challenges like maritime security, infrastructure and connectivity, HADR, critical technologies, communications, space cooperation, cyber security, counter-terrorism, Fellowships and climate action to name a few.

Referring to recent activities of the Quad, he said that the grouping seeks to build resilient supply chains in telecom, cyber security, semiconductors and AI.

Mr Jaishankar noted that Quad has given birth to some larger collaborations that serve the same objectives of global good. Two of them merit particular attention. One is the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative, under which data is being supplied for countering illicit maritime activities.

The other is the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which seeks to offer alternative economic engagement mechanisms and it is making steady progress and addressing issues like supply chains, clean economies, sustainability, digital economies amongst others. India and 13 other countries are negotiating the text of agreements under IPEF.

Mr Jaishankar pointed out that among Quad countries, there is a growing comfort in working with each other given the strong consensus they have in their strategic outlooks.

The Quad is here to stay and grow and contribute to global good, he added.