NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday emphasised the need to return to a path of dialogue and diplomacy in dealing with the Ukraine crisis during a virtual meeting of Quad leaders.
Besides Modi, the meeting was attended by US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida.
"Developments in Ukraine were discussed in the meeting, including its humanitarian implications. The Prime Minister emphasised the need to return to a path of dialogue and diplomacy," an official statement said.
In his remarks, Modi also reiterated the importance of adhering to the UN Charter, international law and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The meeting reviewed the progress on Quad's initiatives since the summit talks in September.
"The leaders agreed on accelerating cooperation, with an objective to achieve concrete outcomes by the summit in Japan later this year," the statement said.
It said Modi underlined that the Quad must remain focused on its core objective of promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
"He called for concrete and practical forms of cooperation within the Quad, in areas like humanitarian and disaster relief, debt sustainability, supply chains, clean energy, connectivity, and capacity-building," it said.
The leaders also discussed other topical issues, including the situation in Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean region and the Pacific Islands.
"The leaders agreed to stay in touch and to work towards an ambitious agenda for the forthcoming Leaders' Summit in Japan," the statement said.
In this closed door meeting, the Quad leaders are likely to have exchanged views and assessments about important developments in the Indo-Pacific.
"The leaders will have an opportunity to continue their dialogue after the September 2021 Summit in Washington DC. They will exchange views and assessments about important developments in the Indo-Pacific,’’ said an MEA spokesperson.
In March last year, Biden hosted the first-ever summit of the Quad leaders in the virtual format that was followed by an in-person summit in Washington in September for which Prime Minister Modi had travelled to the US.
The Quad has been focusing on cooperation in areas such as producing vaccines, connectivity projects, facilitating the mobility of students, and looking at promoting startups and technology collaboration.
The foreign ministers of the Quad grouping held extensive talks in Melbourne last month.
The Quad has been focusing on cooperation in areas such as producing vaccines, connectivity projects, facilitating the mobility of students, and looking at promoting startups and technology collaboration.
The Quad vaccine partnership was announced in March last year with an aim to deliver 100 crore doses of vaccines to the Indo-Pacific region by the end of 2022.
The next in person Quad meet will be held in Tokyo in Spring.
Meanwwhile, the two-day-long 19th military cooperation meeting between India and the US has ended in Agra in Uttar Pradesh, the Defence Ministry stated on Thursday.
"The discussions focussed on strengthening the ongoing defence engagements between the two sides and mulled on new initiatives under the ambit of existing cooperation mechanism," the ministry noted in a statement.
The meeting took place at a time when Russia is conducting a major military operation against Ukraine.
Western countries like the US have imposed major economic sanctions on Russia.
Around 70 per cent of Indian defence equipment is of Russian origin.
The India-US military cooperation group is a forum established to progress defence cooperation between the countries through regular talks at the strategic and operational levels between Headquarters of Integrated Defence Staff and the US Indo-Pacific Command, the Defence Ministry mentioned.
The meeting, which ended on Wednesday, was co-chaired by Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (CISC) Air Marshal BR Krishna from the Indian side and Deputy Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command Lieutenant General Stephen D Sklenka from the US side, it noted.
(With PTI Inputs)