US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez has urged the quad nations to take a more proactive role in addressing Sri Lanka’s political and economic crisis.
In a letter to the leaders of Quad nations on a successful Quad Leaders’ Summit, Chairman Menendez, said there is much more the Quad can and should do in the Indian Ocean neighborhood, starting with Sri Lanka. The origins of the Quad lie in the collective response by our four nations to the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In the spirit of that tradition, today’s iteration of the Quad can lead the way in working to avoid an economic implosion in Sri Lanka that could spark a humanitarian crisis with wider, destabilizing, regional impacts.
“New Delhi has already taken a proactive role in providing loans and humanitarian assistance to the Sri Lankan government to avoid a meltdown, while Washington is preparing long-term economic support. Tokyo is providing food assistance to the Sri Lankan people. These are all positive steps. But there is more than can be done via the Quad, including by mobilizing additional humanitarian assistance, providing badly-needed fuel, and offering technical support and advice in the areas of financial accounting, health, food security, and macroeconomic policy.”
Through the new Quad Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Mechanism (HADR), Tokyo and Canberra can play a bigger role and demonstrate that the Quad is capable of tackling challenges across the entire breadth of the Indo-Pacific region.”
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