Washington, July 1 (IANS) External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar reiterated on Tuesday India’s right to defend itself against terrorism and asked the Quad to understand it as the four-nation group’s foreign ministers gathered for their ministerial.

“India has every right to defend its people against terrorism, and we will exercise that right,” he said with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Ministers Penny Wong of Australia and Takeshi Iwaya of Japan standing beside him.

“We expect our quad partners to understand and appreciate that,” he emphasised.

This is the first Quad ministerial where the four foreign ministers will be meeting together after the heinous Pahalgam massacre on April 22 by Pakistan-backed terrorists and India’s decisive ‘Operation Sindoor’ against them.

Referring to the Pahalgam attack, EAM Jaishankar said, “A word about terrorism in the light of our recent experience: The world must display zero tolerance. Victims and perpetrators must never be equated”.

Counter-terrorism is one of the elemental items in the Quad agenda.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to host the summit of the Quad leaders later this year with the US President Donald Trump and Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese of Australia and Shigeru Ishiba of Japan.

“We have some proposals on how to make that productive,” Jaishankar said. “I’m sure so do our partners, [and] we will discuss and I’m sure we can agree on going about it”.

“A lot is happening in the world, and I’m sure that our exchange of views will be very valuable for all of us,” he added.

The Quad is committed to a rules-based international order and “it is essential that nations of the Indo-Pacific have the freedom of choice, so essential to make right decisions,” he said.

The task before the Quad is “deepening our convergence and expanding our common ground,” he said.

“In the last few months, we have made significant progress in Quad initiatives,” he said.

“They include the maritime domain, technology, education, and political coordination,” he said.

At their meeting, he said, “We will be discussing that the working of the Quad [which] has also been made more efficient through streamlining the working groups in a more cohesive, nimble and focused manner”.

“I value our consultations of different dimensions of the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

–IANS

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