By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia and India’s foreign ministers said on Tuesday they were confident the Quad group of the U.S., India, Australia and Japan would continue to cooperate in the Indo-Pacific region regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters in Canberra she had met Mike Pompeo, who served as Secretary of State in the previous Trump Administration, ahead of the U.S. election and had “a very good discussion”.
“One of the priorities for us to discuss was AUKUS, and we are very pleased at the sort of bipartisan support that we have seen,” she said, referring to the defence technology partnership between Australia, Britain and the U.S. to transfer nuclear powered submarines to Australia.
Australia’s most expensive defence project, the AUKUS deal was struck under the Biden Administration in 2023.
“In terms of the U.S. election, we will work with whomever the American people choose,” she said.
China objects to the Quad grouping as an effort to contain it, while Australia, Japan, India and the U.S. say they are like-minded democracies seeking to bolster stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Quad leaders agreed in September to establish joint coast guard patrols and increased military logistics cooperation.
The Quad was “very valuable” in the region, Wong said. “We see it retaining its importance regardless of the outcome of the election,” she added.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the Quad was revived under the Trump presidency in 2017.
“When we look at the American election, we are very confident that whatever the verdict, our relationship with the United States will only grow,” he said, on an official visit to Australia.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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