US President Joe Biden is still committed to attending the annual leadership summit of the QUAD countries which is scheduled to be held in India this year, the White House said. “We’re still committed to there being a Quad leader summit this year, but there’s nothing on the calendar right now for it,” White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters at a news conference here.
Biden To Attend QUAD Summit In India
Why In News
- US President Joe Biden is still committed to attending the annual leadership summit of the QUAD countries which is scheduled to be held in India this year, the White House said. “We’re still committed to there being a Quad leader summit this year, but there’s nothing on the calendar right now for it,” White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters at a news conference here.
All You Need To Know
- QUAD, comprising Australia, Japan, India and the US, is an initiative of Biden. In the first 100 days of his presidency, he convened a virtual leadership summit of the QUAD countries in 2020. Since then QUAD leaders have been holding an annual summit on a rotation basis. India is scheduled to host the QUAD leadership summit this year.
- Kirby said now that Biden is not running for reelection, certainly, one can expect there will be opportunities on the calendar that may not have been before.
- “So we’re all exploring what those opportunities can look like in terms of advancing his foreign policy agenda and national security opportunities here and around the world. But I don’t have anything on the schedule to speak to now, but I mean, stay tuned,’ he said.
Quad Summit Postponed
- India put off holding the Quad Summit in January this year as Biden declined an invitation to visit New Delhi as the chief guest of the Republic Day parade due to domestic concerns, and also because it was improbable to expect that the 81-year-old President would travel twice to India in the same month during a re-election year.
- The dates for the Quad Summit have not been announced, but it is rumoured that they will take place after the US elections in November.
- The Quad is a grouping of countries driven by shared interests and values and interested in strengthening a rules-based order in the strategically important Indo-Pacific region.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended last year’s summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 20, along with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and Biden. PM Modi had last year asserted the importance of consolidating Quad’s constructive agenda and delivering tangible outcomes for the region. He also invited Quad leaders to India in 2024.
- Last year, the leaders of the Quad countries held productive discussions about developments in the Indo-Pacific which affirmed their shared democratic values and strategic interests. They also reiterated the importance of upholding the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and peaceful resolution of disputes, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
QUAD
- Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, is a strategic security partnership between the United States, India, Japan and Australia. It was officially launched by Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007.
- The creation of this military agreement was largely linked to the military and economic power of China, which protested against the Quad and termed it as an ‘Asian NATO’.Â
- All sides have expressed that the Quad is not aimed towards any country, yet it is widely considered that the resurrection of the partnership has primarily aimed to counter Beijing’s challenges to democracy and its growing aggressiveness in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) across Asia and the Pacific, that comes with strings attached.
- The Chinese provocation in Doklam in 2017 is considered one of the major reasons for India’s renewed interest in the deal.
