Only Quad collaboration can ensure freedom, stability and security in Indo Pacific region: Jaishankar

Tokyo: It is only the Quad nations' collaboration that can ensure that the Indo Pacific region remains free, open, stable and secure, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday, insisting that the grouping is here to stay and to grow.

In his opening statement at the Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting in Tokyo, Jaishankar said the Quad's commitment to doing global good has a resonance far beyond the region.

"It is only our collaboration that can ensure that the Indo Pacific remains free, remains open, stable, secure, prosperous," he said.

"It is therefore essential that our political understanding strengthens our economic partnerships grow and technology collaborations expand and our people-to-people comfort intensifies. Our meeting should send a clear message that the quad is here to stay here to do and here to grow," he said.

In November 2017, India, Japan, the US, and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.

The South China Sea lies at the junction between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

China claims most of the South China Sea as its own, while The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims over the maritime area.