Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said it is only collaboration among Quad member-countries the US, Japan, India and Australia can ensure that the Indo-Pacific remains free, remains open, stable, secure and prosperous.

"As political democracies, pluralistic societies and market economies, there is the key question of upholding a rules-based order," he said adding "It is only our collaboration that can ensure that the Indo-Pacific remains free, remains open, stable, secure and prosperous,” Jaishankar said while speaking at the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Tokyo.

The Quad was set up in November 2017 to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence. The South China Sea lies at the junction between the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

China claims most of the South China Sea as its own and is embroiled in territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan over maritime activities in the area. China has a maritime dispute with Japan over the East China Sea.

“It is,” Jaishankar said, “essential that our political understanding strengthens, our economic partnerships grow, our technology collaborations expand and our people-to-people comfort intensifies.”

Apparently responding to suggestions in some quarters that the Quad is losing steam, he said “our meeting should send a clear message that the Quad is here to stay, here to do and here to go.”

Besides Jaishankar, the Quad talks in Tokyo are being attended by Australia’s Penny Wong, Japan’s Yoko Kamikawa and Antony Blinken.

Jaishankar said “these are not easy times. A major challenge is to ensure global economic growth, while also de-risking it.”

He said the march of technology has also acquired extraordinary proportions, holding possibilities of the very manner in which we live, think and act. In a sense, we are in the midst of a re-globalization. At the same time, it is only our collective endeavours that can prove the international system against disruptions, man-made or natural.”