Quad officials discuss cooperation on supply chain, critical technologies
NEW YORK: Senior officials of the Quad countries on Thursday explored collaboration to ensure resilient supply chains and in the areas of emerging and critical technologies to move their cooperation to a newer level.
India's External Affairs Ministry, in a statement after the virtual meeting, said: "The Officials discussed issues of common interest and explored possibilities of collaboration in resilient supply chains, emerging and critical technologies, maritime security, cyber security, counter-terrorism, infrastructure and connectivity, higher education, climate change and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief."
The overdependence on China has been exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic as the world faced critical shortages due to supply chain problems while China was in a race to gain an edge in critical technologies. A statement from Tokyo said that Vani Rao, the Joint Secretary for the Americas, and Naveen Srivastava, the Additional Secretary for East Asia, represented India at the meeting.
The other participants in the meeting included Richard Buangan, the acting senior official for the East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Dean Thompson, the acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, representing the US; Edo Kazuya, Japan's Deputy Director General for Asian and Oceania, and Justin Hayhurst, Australia's Deputy Secretary for the Indo-Pacific, it added.
It also said that the Quad officials discussed holding an in-person summit of the Quad leaders by the end of this year.
Thursday's meeting followed up the virtual Quad summit of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi, Yoshihide Sugo of Japan and Scott Morrison of Australia, and US President Joe Biden held in March.
At the summit, India was given the key role of producing one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines for distribution in the region under a programme that will be financed by Japan and the US, with Australia providing the distribution logistics.
The statement from India on the meeting of the senior diplomats said that they reviewed the progress of the Quad vaccine programme and discussed "the wide-ranging impact of COVID-19 in the Indo-Pacific region, and the importance of collaborative efforts to contain the pandemic, ensure health security and a quick economic recovery". (IANS)
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