Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga came together on Friday evening in a virtual meeting of the Quad group of nations aimed at countering China’s growing military and economic power.
The four leaders at the first Quad summit, held virtually, asserted that they will focus on a “free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region” as well as on ensuring affordable and safe vaccines against coronavirus, which can be seen as part of efforts to counterbalance China’s vaccine diplomacy and growing global influence.
Noting that the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue has come of age, PM Modi remarked that the Quad countries will work together closer than ever before for promoting “a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific” and the Quad will remain an important pillar of stability in the region.
“I thank President Biden for this initiative. We are united by democratic values and our commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. Our agenda today – covering areas like vaccines, climate change and emerging technologies – makes the Quad a force for global good,” he said.
“I see this positive vision as an extension of India’s ancient philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which regards the world as one family,” said the PM at the summit.
Biden asserted the US’ commitment to working with its Quad allies to achieve stability in the Indo-Pacific region, calling a free and open Indo-Pacific “essential” for the future of the four countries.
The US President also seemed to send a message to Beijing, which has been flexing its muscles in the region, when he remarked, “We are establishing a new mechanism to enhance our cooperation in ways that our mutual ambitions are addressed…We are renewing our commitment to ensure that our regions are governed by international law, committing to universal values and free from coercion.”
Biden also spoke about his recently passed $1.9 trillion Covid-19 package, known as the ‘American Rescue Plan’, to help Americans overcome the pandemic, and announced the launch of a new vaccine manufacturing pact in which the Quad will play an important role.
Incidentally, this was among President Biden’s earliest plurilateral summits, preceded only by a meeting of the G7 leaders, and was held less than two months after he took office.
Meanwhile, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga said that he felt “emotional” about the summit and committed to advance cooperation for a free and open Indo-Pacific. “I do feel emotional about this summit… With the four countries working together, I wish to fully advance cooperation to realise a free and open Indo-Pacific and to make a visible and tangible contribution to the peace, prosperity and stability in the region, including Covid-19,” he said.
He also thanked the other three Quad countries for their support during the 2011 Japan earthquake, adding that he looked forward to fruitful conversations in the meet.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison reiterated the shared values of the Quad and called for creating a different future post-Covid and for the Quad to be an enabler of peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, which he said “will shape the destiny of the world in the 21st century.”
Speaking at the meet, Morrison said, “We join together as Quad leaders of nations to welcome what I believe to be a new dawn in the Indo-Pacific. History teaches us that when nations engage together in a partnership of strategic trust, common hope and shared values, much can be achieved… As four leaders of great liberal democracies in the Indo Pacific, let our partnership be the enabler of more peace, stability and prosperity and do so inclusively with many nations of our region.”
Earlier, Morrison told reporters, “When governments come together at the highest level, this shows a whole new level of cooperation to create a new anchor for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
The Quad is a dialogue platform of like-minded countries (India, the US, Australia and Japan) that share certain attributes like democracy, pluralism and a market-based economy and have growing convergences in strategic and security perceptions, especially in the Indo-Pacific region. The group was revived in 2017 under the Trump administration, which saw it as a vehicle to push back against China’s increasing belligerence.