Goodbye Shinzo Abe! QUAD leaders mourn death of Japanese leader

New York: Leaders of India, Australia and the US - countries that make up the Quad with Japan - expressed shock at the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, saying he played a formative role in the founding of the partnership and worked tirelessly to advance a shared vision for a free and open strategically-important Indo-Pacific region. Abe, 67, was shot from behind in Nara in western Japan while giving a campaign speech. He was airlifted to a hospital but was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was pronounced dead later at the hospital. Abe was Japan's longest-serving leader before stepping down in 2020 for health reasons.

"We, the leaders of Australia, India, and the United States, are shocked at the tragic assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe," US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement on Friday released by the White House.

The leaders called Abe a transformative leader for Japan as well as for Japanese relations with each one of the three countries.

He also played a formative role in the founding of the Quad partnership, and worked tirelessly to advance a shared



vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,? they said.

Abe was one of the architects of the Quad, the US, India, Japan and Australia alliance aimed at countering China's growing influence and military might.

The four countries had 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.

The leaders vowed to honour Abe's memory by redoubling our work towards a peaceful and prosperous region and added that their hearts are with the people of Japan and with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in their moment of grief.

Public broadcaster NHK said police have arrested Nara resident 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, who allegedly used a handmade gun to shoot Abe, a tragedy that has shocked Japan which has some of the strictest gun laws in the world.

Condolences poured in from leaders around the world over the tragic killing of Abe. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is deeply saddened by Abe's "horrific killing, calling it an "act that has profoundly shocked Japanese society in a country with one of the lowest rates of gun crime.