Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on May 26 that the Quad grouping is evolving from being a discussion forum into an action-oriented forum, where the four nations come together to discuss areas of common interest and begin to take action.
In his opening remarks at the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in the National Capital, Rubio said that his participation in the Quad meeting immediately after being sworn in showcases the US’ commitment to the grouping.
“Over the last three days, not just I want to thank Jaishankar and the Indian Government for hosting us here. Not just in the bilateral visit over the last three days, but for hosting this important gathering here again today. I want to thank Toshi and Penny as well for joining us, for your willingness to come over here and do this, and it comes at an important time. It was our goal as I began as Secretary of State, and has been pointed out earlier that my first meeting as a Secretary of State was the Quad literally within minutes of being sworn in, and I thought that demonstrated our commitment to this process.”
“But our goal collectively over the last year has been to turn this from a forum in which we meet and talk about problems to one where we actually do something about it. And I think we can report to our people respectively that we are beginning to do that pretty aggressively and pretty impressively in the areas of cooperation. And it’s also interesting that on the areas that we are working together on have become even more relevant,” Rubio added.
