US, Australia, Japan, and India leaders to meet in first-ever ‘Quad’ summit

The leaders of the United States, Japan, India, and Australia will meet in a virtual summit Friday, the US and Indian governments announced Tuesday.

It will be the first time talks have been held between the heads of state of the four-member group, informally known as the “Quad,” and comes as all four countries see heightened tensions with China over a variety of issues.

“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,” an announcement from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office said.

The White House said Covid-19, economic cooperation, and the climate crisis will also be topics of discussion.

“That President Biden has made this one of his earliest multilateral engagements speaks to the importance we place on close cooperation with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

The Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is an informal strategic forum for the four nations involved and has featured semi-regular summits and information exchanges.

But the meetings have never featured the four heads of state, currently along with Biden and Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

While not a formal military alliance like NATO, the Quad is seen by some as a potential counterweight to growing Chinese influence and alleged aggression in the Asia-Pacific region. The collation has been denounced by Beijing as an anti-China bloc.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison previewed the talks in a news conference last week.

“The Quad is very central to the United States and our thinking about the region,” Morrison said.

“This will become a feature of Indo-Pacific engagement. But it’s not going to be a big bureaucracy with a big secretariat and those sorts of things. It will be four leaders, four countries, working together constructively for the peace, prosperity, and stability of the Indo-Pacific, which is good for everyone in the Indo-Pacific,” the Australian PM said.

On the military portion of the Quad, cooperation has been increasing over the past year through bilateral agreements between Quad partners and joint military drills.

Last November, Australia joined the annual Malabar exercises with the US, Japan and India. Conducted annually since 1992, the maneuvers have grown in size and complexity in recent years to address what the US Navy has previously described as a “variety of shared threats to maritime security in the Indo-Asia Pacific.”

The participation of Australia meant all four members of the Quad were involved in the drills for the first time since 2007.
All four countries have also seen turbulent relations with China over the past few years.