India has confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would on Friday join his counterparts in Japan, Australia and the United States for the first-ever summit of the ‘Quad’ – a coalition forged by the four nations to counter China’s expansionist moves in the Indo-Pacific region.
Modi will join United States President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for the virtual summit of the Quad. It will mark the elevation of the Quad to the level of the Heads of Governments – a move, which is likely to rile up China and may even result in some unease in India’s relations with Russia.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a press release in New Delhi on Tuesday, confirming the Prime Minister’s participation in the forthcoming summit.
“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,” it stated, adding that the summit would provide an opportunity to exchange views on contemporary challenges, such as resilient supply chains, emerging and critical technologies, maritime security and climate change.
The proposal for a virtual meeting of the leaders of the four nations was mooted by the Biden Administration last month.
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India, however, took time to give its consent to the proposal as it was keen to first assess the implication of its joining the move to elevate the Quad on its relations with Russia as well as on the yet-to-be-completed process of mutual disengagement of troops by the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) from the face-off points along the disputed boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh.
New Delhi, however, finally formally confirmed the Prime Minister’s participation in the summit, a few hours after he and his counterpart in Japan, Yoshihide Suga, spoke over the phone and agreed that the four-way consultations among India, Japan, Australia and the United States held value and should continue.
Morrison too last week said that he was “looking forward” to the first virtual meeting of the leaders of the Quad. He had also spoken to the Prime Minister over the phone earlier.
The MEA stated in New Delhi that the leaders of the four nations would discuss ongoing efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and explore opportunities for collaboration in ensuring safe, equitable and affordable vaccines in the Indo-Pacific region.
India, Australia, Japan and the US had first launched the Quad in 2007, but the initiative had fizzled out very soon. The four nations, however, re-launched the Quad in Manila in November 2017 – ostensibly to create a bulwark of democratic nations to counter expansionist moves of China in the Indo-Pacific region. The senior diplomats of the four nations had several meetings ever since it was re-launched.
It was elevated to the level of Foreign Ministers with a meeting on the side-line of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019. The second ministerial meeting was held in Tokyo on October 6 last year and the third was held virtually on February 18.
The one Biden, Morrison, Modi and Suga are likely to hold will be the first-ever talks at the level of the leaders of the four nations. It is however unlikely to transform the Quad into a NATO-like entity for the Indo-Pacific region as the erstwhile US administration led by Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump wanted.