Senior Officials From Quad Nations Review Progress Made By Working Groups, Discusses Ideas To Collaborate In Indo-Pacific

<p>Senior officials from India, Australia, Japan and the United States met via video conference on Wednesday to review the progress made by various Quad working groups in achieving the commitments made during the 2023 Quad Leaders&rsquo; Summit.</p> <p>The meeting was attended by K Nagaraj Naidu, Joint Secretary (Americas) of the Ministry of External Affairs; Elly Lawson, Deputy Secretary (Strategic Planning and Coordination Group) of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Fujimoto Kentaro, Deputy Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Daniel Kritenbrink and Donald Lu, Assistant Secretaries from US Department of State.</p> <p><strong>ALSO READ | <a href="https://ift.tt/v4mdjlq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">'Squad' Can Make &lsquo;Quad&rsquo; Inconsequential, Philippines Is Now India For The US</a></strong></p> <p>"They also discussed new ideas to further the Quad&rsquo;s collaboration in delivering public goods in the Indo-Pacific region in areas such as health security, digital public infrastructure, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), climate resilience, enhancing maritime domain awareness, countering terrorism and enhancing telecommunication resiliency through undersea cable connectivity," a government statement said on Thursday.</p> <p>The meeting provided an opportunity for the officials to exchange views on important regional and international issues of mutual interest.&nbsp;</p> <p>"They underscored the Quad&rsquo;s commitment to a free, open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific and reaffirmed the centrality of regional institutions, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA)," it said.</p> <p>It added that the officials look forward to continuing regular consultations in the lead up to the next Quad Leaders&rsquo; Summit, which will be hosted by India.</p> <p>A statement of the US Department of State said that the senior officials reaffirmed the Quad&rsquo;s commitment to the people and communities of the Indo-Pacific region, including most recently through coordinated humanitarian and disaster relief assistance to Papua New Guinea in the wake of the tragic landslide in May.</p>

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