An online summit of a Quadrilateral group of nations is to be held on Friday, 12the March. Four countries will participate in this online summit including India, America, Australia, and Japan.
The four leaders namely Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will take in the summit. This would be the first online summit of four nations in history. While it is sure that Biden and Narendra Modi will attend the meeting, it is not yet confirmed if another two leaders will be there in the discussion.
What is Quadrilateral Security Dialogue?
Also known as the Quad, initially proposed by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in August 2006. Dr. Manmohan Singh, former Indian Prime Minister appeared at it.
It was formed keeping the vision of an “arc of freedom and prosperity” for the countries bordering the Indian and the Pacific Ocean in mind. Luckily, it proved successful in gathering groups of countries as it worked as a relief in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, somewhere on an ad hoc basis. That was the basis of the “ Quadrilateral Security Dialogue” which later became known as “Quad”.
The idea was once again revived by the Indian then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in 2006, in a joint statement with Japan to support dialogue with the aim to bring India, Japan, and other like-minded countries together for mutual-interest.
However, in 2008, when India was not a part of any effort against China, Australia also left the group. It was again re-launched in 2017 at the ASEAN summit to counter China’s assertion in the region.
Now Friday’s meeting is the first after the 2017 relaunch.
What are the Expectations from this Quad Meeting?
The relevance of the meeting tomorrow is, however, quite clear as it would basically cover the China crisis with many countries including India. Otherwise,
- The meeting is expected to highlight the security situation, economic cooperation between the countries, and the climate crisis concerns.
- Else, the group of leaders may announce financing agreements to support an increase in manufacturing capacity for the COVID-19 vaccine in India – a senior US administration confirmed.
- During a Congressional hearing, Tony Blinken – US Secretary of State told lawmakers, “We have a Quad summit meeting on Friday with President (Joe) Biden, and I expect we’ll see something on vaccines coming out of that summit. There are other things that we’re looking at that we’re working on in the days and weeks and months ahead to make sure that we are a leading international actor in creating greater access to vaccines”.
China’s Reaction to Quad Meeting
China meanwhile reacted to the news of the Quad meeting like this-
- Hopefully, it is organized to promote peace in the region.
- On the other hand, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said- “We hope the relevant countries will keep in mind the common interests of the regional countries uphold the principles of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation and do things that are conducive to regional peace stability and prosperity rather than the opposite.”
- The country also guessed this Quad meeting will discuss vaccine nationalism and politicization of vaccine cooperation.
