Vinayak Barot
New Delhi: US President Joe Biden’s first virtual meeting with America’s strategic partners in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) will take place on March 12, which, the White House said, showed its commitment with the Indo-Pacific allies.
On Tuesday, the Biden Administration highlighted the importance of dialogue between the United States with its allies in the Indo-Pacific region. The leaders will meet via videoconferencing on Friday.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said “This is the first meeting of the Quad at the leader level. President Joe Biden and this administration are committed to working with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific to secure peace, defend our shared values, and advance our prosperity. President Biden has made it one of his earliest multilateral engagements. It shows the importance we place on close cooperation with our partners in Indo-Pacific.”
Participants in the Friday meeting will be, besides Biden: Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (Japan), Prime Minister Narendra Modi (India) and Prime Minister Scott Morrison (Australia).
“A range of issues we expect to be discussed. The Quad has met regularly at the working and foreign ministers level. However, Friday will be the first time the quad is meeting at the leaders’ level.” Psaki said.
‘Quad’ group was specially designed to counter the Chinese activities and challenges arriving in Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Morrison said that “The Quad is very central to the US and our thinking about the region, and looking at the Indo-Pacific also through the prism of our ASEAN partners and their vision of the Indo-Pacific.”
The Australian PM also said that “I have already had bilateral discussions about this with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yoshihide Suga, the Prime Minister of Japan. And of course, we are looking forward to those discussions and follow-up face-to-face meetings as well.”
Some international political experts believe that Biden’s attempts to make ‘Quad’ stronger could be a tough challenge for Beijing in the future. China was expecting good relations with Washington after the US presidential election last year.
