<span style="color: #222222;">External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar has said that the days of unilateralism are over, bilateralism has its own limits and as the COVID reminded us, multilateralism is simply not working well enough.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said, the resistance to reforming international organizations compel us to look for more practical and immediate solutions and that is the case for the Quad.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Delivering the J.G. Crawford Oration-2021 this evening virtually organised by Australian National University, Dr Jaishankar said, the last two decades have seen a real transformation in India's relations with its three Quad partners, the United States, Japan and Australia.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said, the Quad nations are all democratic polities, market economies and pluralistic societies.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The External Affairs Minister said, apart from that natural understanding that it generates, similarity in the structural aspects of their relationships has helped to foster the platform.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said, in each case, there are regular meetings at the Summit level, designated formally as annual in the case of Australia and Japan.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Dr Jaishankar said, all the bilateral ties now include a 22 Defence and Foreign Ministers' interaction.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said, all four countries are members of ASEAN-led forums, including the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum and the Defence Ministers Meeting.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Minister said, they also strongly subscribe to the centrality of ASEAN in so far as the Indo-Pacific is concerned. He said, between them, these four are involved in multiple trilateral combinations with other partners.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Dr Jaishankar said, in the case of India and Australia, they include those with France, Indonesia and Japan. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said, in many ways, the ease of working together has been increased by other experiences, whether they are bilateral or more collective.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Minister said, all of them offer mutual logistics support and work on white shipping obviously enables better maritime security coordination.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Dr Jaishankar said, their shared commitment to UNCLOS-1982 as the constitution of the seas is no less relevant.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said, similarly, three of them Japan, Australia and India being members of the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative and the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative makes a difference.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The External Affairs Minister said, the working of the Quad takes into account the consequences of globalization, requirements of the global commons and the expression of converging interests.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said, the Malabar Naval Exercise is cited most often as its example.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Dr. Jaishankar said, but Quad's expanding agenda affirms a declared intention to promote greater prosperity and ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific-so it should not be seen narrowly.</span><br />