First Ever Quad Summit: ‘A New Dawn In The Indo-Pacific’
The leaders of the U.S., Japan, India and Australia met virtually Friday in the first-ever summit for the Indo-Pacific security grouping known as the Quad.
U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed a broad range of issues beyond security, including climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and future tech standards.
“The Quad is going to be a vital arena for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, and I look forward to working closely … with all of you in the coming years,” Biden said in his opening remarks.
A senior U.S. administration official told reporters Thursday that Biden had worked hard to bring the leaders together to make a clear statement of the Indo-Pacific region’s importance.
While the unspoken glue of the Quad is unquestionably the need for a vehicle to face the rise of China, the Biden administration made efforts to pad the agenda so as to dilute the “anti-China” flavor.
A joint statement is expected to touch on vaccine distribution in emerging countries as well as cooperation on economic and environmental issues, and is expected to confirm plans to set up working groups on climate change and tech standards and norms.
The summit agenda included strengthening supply chains for semiconductors and important resources, with an eye toward dispersing supply networks across the four countries to reduce their reliance on China. Members will cooperate on procuring rare-earth minerals, which are vital in applications such as batteries and high-performance motors.
One key development for the Quad is that India agreed to take part in the leaders’ summit. New Delhi has traditionally eschewed formal alliances and kept other countries, including China, at a roughly equal distance. India accordingly hesitated to upgrade the informal grouping to a summit until now.
The other three Quad countries sought to ease the way for New Delhi to participate with a wide-ranging agenda that kept potentially touchy security issues out of the spotlight. India also had the privilege of announcing the summit, and Modi spoke second after Biden at the meeting.
“It is good to be among the friends. I thank President Biden for this initiative,” Modi said in his remarks. “Excellencies, we are united by our democratic values and our commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.”
He said the Quad’s agenda covering vaccines, climate change and emerging technologies makes the Quad “a force for global good.”
Citing an ancient Indian philosophy of “one family,” Modi said: “Today’s summit meeting shows that Quad has come of age. It will now remain an important pillar of stability in the region.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is set to visit India during his Asian tour kicking off next week after stops in Japan and South Korea.
Morrison called Friday’s meeting “a new dawn in the Indo-Pacific.”
Japan’s Suga told reporters after the meeting that he had proposed working with such countries as Association of Southeast Asian Nations members to pursue a free and open Indo-Pacific and that the other leaders had agreed.