First QUAD Summit: India, US, Japan, Oz Leaders’ Talks On Friday

Mar 10, 2021

NEW DELHI: Keeping the China challenge squarely in their sights, the first summit meeting of the QUAD — India, US, Japan and Australia — will take place virtually on Friday, the foreign ministry announced on Tuesday.

An official readout said the meeting of PM Narendra Modi, President  Joe Biden, PM Yoshihide Suga and PM Scott Morrison will discuss everything from  Covid vaccine supplies to climate change.

“The leaders will discuss regional and global issues of shared interest, and exchange views on practical areas of cooperation towards maintaining a free, open and inclusive  Indo-Pacific region,” the statement said.

This is diplomatese for the core discussion of the QUAD — countering the aggressiveness of China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Interestingly, the QUAD, which used to be known as the QUADrilateral security dialogue, is now known as the QUADrilateral framework to indicate it has gone beyond a narrow security dialogue. This will be the first  QUAD summit  meeting since 2007.

The MEA statement added, “The summit will provide an opportunity to exchange views on contemporary challenges such as resilient supply chains, emerging and critical technologies, maritime security, and climate change.”

Morrison has been pushing the summit, and Biden signalled early interest in both the Indo-Pacific and the QUAD, and has moved fast to secure a summit early in his tenure. Biden spoke with Suga on January 27, Morrison on February 3 and Modi on February 8 to call this summit. Last week, Morrison was quoted as saying that QUAD summits would become “regular”. On February 18, US secretary of state Anthony Blinken initiated a virtual meeting of the QUAD foreign ministers to prepare for this summit.

“This will become a feature of Indo-Pacific engagement,” Morrison said last week of the QUAD’s elevation. “I am looking forward to that first gathering of QUAD leaders, the first-ever such gathering.”

There is a possibility of informal QUAD meetings on the sidelines of multilateral meetings post-pandemic. The first opportunity this year would be at the G7 summit in the UK, where India, Australia and South Korea are special invitees.

Courtesy: TOI