By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The foreign ministers of Australia and India said on Tuesday they were confident the Quad group of the U.S., India, Australia and Japan would continue to cooperate in the Indo-Pacific region regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters in Canberra that she had met Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state in the previous Trump administration, before the US election and had “a very good discussion”.

“One of the priorities we got to discuss was AUKUS and we’re very pleased with the kind of bipartisan support we’ve seen,” she said, referring to the defense technology partnership between Australia, Britain and the US to transfer nuclear powered submarines. to Australia.

Australia’s most expensive defense project, the AUKUS deal, was completed under the Biden administration in 2023.

“In terms of the US election, we will work with whoever the American people choose,” she said.

China opposes the Quad grouping as an effort to contain it, while Australia, Japan, India and the US say they are similar democracies seeking to support stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

Quad leaders agreed in September to establish joint coast guard patrols and increase cooperation in military logistics.

Quad was “very valuable” in the region, Wong said. “We see that it retains its importance regardless of the outcome of the election,” she added.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the Quad was revived under the Trump presidency in 2017.

“As we look at the American election, we are very confident that regardless of the verdict, our relationship with the United States will only grow,” he said on an official visit to Australia.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)