Washington: India is a driving force in the Quad and an engine for regional growth, according to the White House, just days after the grouping's foreign ministers met in Melbourne.
India, the United States, Japan, and Australia are members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.

During the Melbourne summit, the countries' foreign ministers discussed China's destabilising role in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The discussions included US Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

"We recognise that India is a like-minded partner and leader in South Asia and the Indian Ocean, active in and connected to Southeast Asia, a driving force of the Quad, and an engine for regional growth and development," said White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in Washington.

"It was a chance to talk about Russia's ongoing threat to Ukraine. They discussed the threat that Russia's aggression poses not only to Ukraine, but to the entire international rules-based order, which has served as the foundation for decades of shared security and prosperity in the region and around the world "She mentioned the Melbourne meeting.

Secretary Blinken "discussed the challenges Russia poses to the rules-based international order and our readiness to support our European allies" during his meetings with the Quad partners, she said.

She stated that the US will continue to build a strategic partnership in which the US and India collaborate to promote South Asian stability, collaborate in new domains such as health, space, and cyberspace, deepen economic and technological cooperation, and contribute to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

The White House did not respond to a question about the Indian minister's recent remarks that India only abides by multilateral sanctions and does not follow sanctions imposed by individual countries. "We are not going to get into specifics. We've been really clear about our discussions, so I'm not going into details beyond what we've read out from the Secretary's meeting in Melbourne last week. But we're working closely with a range of allies and partners, including India," Jean-Pierre said.