India is a Critical, Great Power: Australian minister at Quad meet

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong on March 03 lauded India as a "critical, great power" and said the country's civilization prowess brought a fresh perspective on dealing with current issues. Wong participated in the Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting presided by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the sidelines of Raisina Dialogue 2023 held in the national capital Delhi. "India is a critical power, great power in the region that there is no reshaping of the Indo-Pacific without India. We've seen that India is a civilizational power that brings a different perspective to some of the challenges of these time," said Wong while replying to President of Observer Research Foundation (ORF) Samir Saran on Australia's assessment of India's growth. Saran moderated the discussion on "The Quad Squad: Power and Purpose of the Polygon." Wong also explained how Quad can be a complimentary actor in Indo-Pacific. "The complementarity of this configuration with the architecture of the region, I think is demonstrated from the Australian perspective by our geography and by our interest," said the Australian FM. Wong said that in terms of geography, Australia is the smallest economy, most southernmost economy, abounded on one side by the Indian Ocean, the other side by the Pacific, ASEAN, and particularly the northern countries of ASEAN. "So for us, our interest lies in a world which is being reshaped, the region which is being reshaped -- looking through this and the architecture of the region which I describe stable, peaceful, secure and respect the sovereignty. So our geography and our interest lead to a complementarity. I also believe there is tangible complementarity in the sense that there are things we engage -- Pacific Islands nations, and countries of the ASEAN region and they are all aligned with our interest in economic involvement, prosperity, stability and protection of sovereignty," said Wong.