Quad calls for comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine

NEW DELHI: The foreign ministers of Quad on Friday called for lasting peace in Ukraine and concurred without naming Russia that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is ''inadmissible''.

The issue figured at a meeting among External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi and Australia's Penny Wong. In a joint statement, the foreign ministers said they underscored the need for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in accordance with international law.

''We continued to discuss our responses to the conflict in Ukraine and the immense human suffering it is causing, and concurred that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible,'' the foreign ministers said. ''We underscored the need for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in accordance with international law, including the UN Charter,'' they said.

The Quad foreign ministers emphasised that the rules-based international order must respect sovereignty, territorial integrity, transparency and peaceful resolution of disputes.

Except India, the other Quad member nations -- the US, Japan and Australia have been severely critical of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The US has been leading Western efforts to punish Russia for the invasion.

India has not yet condemned the Russian offensive and has been favouring resolution of the conflict through diplomacy and dialogue. While Blinken and Wong were in India to attend the G20 foreign ministers' meeting, Hayashi came to Delhi to participate in the Quad meeting.

Later, Blinken said at the Raisina Dialogue that ''If we allow with impunity Russia to do what it's doing in Ukraine, then that's a message to wouldbe aggressors everywhere that they may be able to get away with it too.'' ''The principles that underlie the entire international system that are necessary for trying to keep peace, the stability that grew out of two world wars are being challenged, being aggressed along with Ukraine,'' he said. ''And part of the reason that countries way beyond Europe are also so focused on this and are working to support Ukraine and deal with the challenge is because they know it could have an effect here,'' he said.