Quad's agenda makes it one of most expansive inter-governmental frameworks: Jaishankar

New Delhi: The Quad is growing and its agenda makes it one of the "most expansive" inter-governmental frameworks, and the incoming Donald Trump administration is unlikely to reduce support for the coalition, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday.

In an interactive session at the India-Japan Forum here, Jaishankar recalled how Trump's first tenure as the US president supported the shaping of the Quad and its subsequent growth.

The Quad, comprising India, the United States, Australia and Japan, has been focusing on ensuring peace, stability and inclusive growth in the Indo-Pacific against the backdrop of China's growing military muscle-flexing in the region.

"In 2017, it was the first year of the Trump administration when it (Quad) started at the vice-minister's level. Then in 2019, it was again under the Trump administration that it moved from the vice-minister's level to the foreign minister's level," Jaishankar said.

"And there is every reason for us to expect that they would say we got it right the first time, it's done well and therefore, we should keep with it," he added.

India is scheduled to host the next Quad Summit in 2025.

The Quad is growing and its agenda makes it "one of the most expansive sort of inter-governmental coordination that is today in evidence", Jaishankar said.

On India's ties with China following the eastern Ladakh border row, Jaishankar referred to the implementation of the latest disengagement arrangement and said challenges remain with regard to de-escalation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"Our entire relationship with China was predicated on the fact that the border areas would remain peaceful and stable and we had agreements to ensure that. In 2020, the Chinese chose to bring a lot of forces to the border areas and obviously, we responded with counter-deployments," he said.

Referring to the completion of the disengagement process, the external affairs minister said it took almost four years and a half.

"We still have challenges left with us. We still have to de-escalate because what we have done is disengage forces from close proximity," he said.

Jaishankar suggested that the focus will now be on de-escalation as a very large number of forces are still deployed in the region.

"Now, we have to sit down and discuss with China how we rebuild our relationship and that is an exercise that still has to be undertaken," he said.

The eastern Ladakh military standoff between India and China began in May 2020 and a deadly clash at the Galwan valley in June that year resulted in a severe strain in ties between the two neighbours.

The face-off effectively ended following the completion of a disengagement process from the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang under an agreement finalised on October 21.

Two days after the pact was firmed up, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on the sidelines of the Brics Summit in the Russian city of Kazan.

At the meeting, the two sides agreed to revive several dialogue mechanisms, including the Special Representatives' dialogue on boundary questions.

India's special representative for the dialogue is National Security Advisor Ajit Doval while the Chinese side is headed at the talks by Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

On India's ties with Japan, Jaishankar highlighted the significance of the partnership between the two countries in the area of semiconductors.

"Japan is revitalising its semiconductor sector and India, after a very long period of neglect, has also announced a semiconductor mission.... Lot of things are happening," he said.

"Both of us also happen to work with Taiwan. I am seeing the beginnings of something potentially important here," the minister added.