India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar attended meetings of the Quad and IBSA on the sidelines of the high-level General Assembly meeting.<\/p>\n
Starting at the meeting’s fourth-day mark on Friday, he attended a ministerial meeting of the Quad, the group of India, the US, Japan and Australia, and of the IBSA, the India, Brazil and South Africa group.<\/p>\n
He had bilateral meetings with Tariq Mahmood Ahmad, a minister of state in Britain’s Foreign Office, Foreign Ministers Penny Wong of Australia, Yoko Kamikawa of Japan and Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani of Bahrain.<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was at the Quad meeting at which they reiterated their determination to fight terrorism and to work to keep the Indo-Pacific “free from intimidation and coercion”, while jointly working on development projects for the region.<\/p>\n
Foreign Ministers Mauro Vieira of Brazil and Naledi Pandor of South Africa attended the IBSA meeting, which focused on tri-continental cooperation among the three countries.<\/p>\n
Jaishankar posted on X that their joint statement “demonstrates the strength of our South-South solidarity”.<\/p>\n
After the meeting with Ahmad, Jaishankar said in an X post that they discussed recent developments pertaining to Ukraine – where the two countries do not see eye to eye – and took stock of bilateral relations.<\/p>\n
With Kamikawa, Jaishankar posted that they “exchanged perspectives on our Special Strategic and Global Partnership [and] discussed our regional, multilateral and global cooperation and taking them forward”.<\/p>\n
He posted that he and Zayani had a good discussion “on connectivity, economic linkages and regional dynamics”.<\/p>\n
In another X post, Jaishankar called the exchange of global and regional assessments with Wong “valuable”.<\/p>\n
Wong said in her X post after the meeting, that they discussed regional security, and a range of bilateral issues including economic engagement\u201d.<\/p>\n
“Australia and India share an interest in a stable, secure region, and a world in which agreed rules are upheld and sovereignty is respected,” she said.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Narendra Modi skipped the high-level meeting and Jaishankar is scheduled to speak for India at the General Assembly September 26.<\/p>\n