India slams China for militarisation of South China Sea

Jaishankar joined his Australian, Japanese and American counterparts to hold a meeting of the Quad Foreign Ministers and send out a message to China

A day after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, New Delhi joined Canberra, Tokyo and Washington DC to denounce Beijing’s “unilateral actions” to change the status quo in the disputed areas in the South China Sea and the East China Sea.

Jaishankar joined his Australian, Japanese and American counterparts, Penny Wong, Yoshimasa Hayashi and Antony Blinken, to hold a meeting of the Quad Foreign Ministers and send out a message to China.

“We recognise that peace and security in the maritime domain underpins the development and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific, and reiterate the importance of respect for sovereignty, consistent with international law,” they said in a joint statement issued after a meeting in New Delhi.

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The Quad Foreign Ministers also stressed on adherence to international law, as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to meet challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the South and East China Seas.

They strongly opposed any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo or increase tensions in the area.

“We express serious concern at the militarization of disputed features, the dangerous use of coast guard vessels and maritime militia, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resource exploitation activities.”

Australia, Japan and Philippines, as well as other maritime neighbors of China, have been protesting against the militarization of the disputed areas in the South China Sea and the East China Sea over the past several years. So have been India and the US.

Jaishankar chaired the meeting of the Quad Foreign Ministers just a day after holding bilateral talks with his counterpart from Beijing, Qin Gang, on the sideline of a G20 conclave in New Delhi.

The meeting of the Quad Foreign Ministers on Friday too sent out a similar message to China, as well as to Russia, which on February 24, 2022, launched a “special military operations” in Ukraine.