'It doesn't make us less credible': India dismissive of China's Quad criticism

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday dismissed China's vehement opposition to the Quad, saying the grouping will do "positive things" and contribute to the prosperity and stability of the strategic Indo-Pacific region and criticising it repeatedly will not make the four-nation grouping less credible.

Jaishankar's remarks in response to a question came a day after he and other foreign ministers of Quad –US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japan’s Yoshimasa Hayashi and Australia's Marise Payne - on Friday vowed to expand cooperation to keep the Indo-Pacific free from "coercion".

The reference to coercion is seen as a veiled message to China's more assertive and aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.

"All four of us yesterday, the two of us and Blinken and Hayashi, as well, made that point that we are here to do positive things. We are here to contribute to the peace, prosperity, and stability of the region," Jaishankar said while speaking at a joint press conference along with his Australian counterpart here.

"Our record and our actions and stances is fairly clear and by criticising it repeatedly, it doesn't make us less credible," he asserted.

China, which has territorial disputes with many countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, has been vehemently opposing the Quad alliance since its formation.

On Friday, China termed the Quad alliance between the US, India, Australia and Japan as a "tool" to contain China's rise and to maintain American hegemony.

"China believes that the so-called Quad group cobbled together by the US, Japan, India and Australia is essentially a tool for containing and besieging China to maintain US hegemony. It aims to stoke confrontation and undermine international solidarity and cooperation," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said in Beijing in response to a question on the Quad grouping.

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"I want to stress that as the Cold War is long over, the attempt to forge a so-called alliance to contain China wins no support and leads nowhere," he said.

Zhao also alleged that the US was playing up the “China threat” theory in order to "smear, oppress and contain China’s development".