Quad to deepen maritime cooperation critical to regional stability, supply chains: Blinken

Melbourne [Australia], February 11 (ANI): Emphasizing the security of Quad partners, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said that Quad will talk about ways to deepen maritime cooperation which is critical to both regional stability and to supply chains.
Blinken made these remarks in the presence of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
While speaking at the 4th Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Blinken said, "we'll also talk about ways to deepen our maritime cooperation with security to aligning security at partners, which is critical to regional stability and to supply chains alike."
Blinken further added that "we'll continue to work together to try to bolster the international rules-based order for this entire region.
"That includes championing the rights of all countries to choose their own path, free from coercion and the right to have their sovereignty and territorial integrity respected --- whether that's here in the city, in Europe or anywhere else in the world," he added.
Blinken said, "Today's meeting is about building on progress. One is, ending the COVID-19 pandemic together. We are making progress towards our goal of producing 1 billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2022."
US Secretary said that today's talk is about the additional steps that we can take to ensure that the pandemic recovery is equitable between within countries, including in vaccine distribution, as well as looking at what we can do to build a stronger global public health security system.
Australia is hosting India, Japan and the United States for the fourth Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting in Melbourne on Friday and the top diplomats are seeking to bolster cooperation in areas including economy, security, COVID-19 pandemic and free and open Indo-Pacific.
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the Quad partnership is committed to openness, transparency and to practical cooperation to support regional recovery in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Payne said the grouping is about "what four democracies can bring to support the priorities of Indo-Pacific partners. "In response to the strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region, we are both working together to amplify and coordinate responses to the most pressing issue of concern to nations across our region."(ANI)