New Delhi, Mar 12,2021: Leaders of the United States, Australia, Japan and India will hold their first-ever quadrilateral security dialogue in a virtual setting on Friday.
A PIB statement said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be participating, along with Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga and President of USA Joseph R Biden, in the first Leaders’ Summit of the Quadrilateral Framework, being held virtually on March 12, 2021.”
‘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 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,’ the statement said, adding that the leaders will discuss ongoing efforts to combat Covid-19 pandemic and explore opportunities for collaboration in ensuring safe, equitable and affordable vaccines in the Indo-Pacific region.
“It (today’s meeting) will showcase the Quad’s ability to pool our capabilities and build habits of cooperation to address some of those urgent challenges we face. Now at the same time, I would just note that the Quad is not about any single challenge. It’s not about any single competitor,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a briefing on Tuesday.
“This is an entity forged and formed because we share common interests. There, maritime security is of course an important one, but our shared interests go well beyond that. And I think you will see reflected in the agenda, the breadth of those shared interest in the aftermath of the Quad meetings,” he said.
Mr Price also said the fact that President Biden was due to meet with his counterparts on Friday and that Mr Blinken had already held discussions with his Quad counterparts in February, signaled the US’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific.
Admiral Philip Davidson, the top US military officer in Asia-Pacific, suggested this week that the grouping should seek to grow into something bigger, amid reports that South Korea may be considering joining the club.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing hoped Friday’s first- ever summit of the leaders of the Quad framework would be “conducive” to regional peace and stability “rather than the opposite”.
The comments from Beijing on Wednesday came days after China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in his annual press conference on March 7, said China was “open-minded to explore and deepen cooperation with the US” under the Biden administration after four turbulent years, and hoped “the US will move in the same direction and remove all its unreasonable restrictions on bilateral cooperation as early as possible, not create new obstacles”.
The forum, dubbed Quad or Asian NATO, was established in 2007. It aims to showcase the allies’ readiness to pool together their capabilities and address common challenges.
