Japan likely to host second in-person Quad summit in January 2022
India and Japan are also exploring the possibility of holding their second 2+2 dialogue of defence and foreign ministers on the margins of the planned Quad Summit
The second in-person summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, could be hosted by Japan as early as January 2022 against the backdrop of pledges by the leadership of India, Australia, Japan and the US to forge ahead with efforts to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.
India and Japan are also exploring the possibility of holding their second 2+2 dialogue of defence and foreign ministers on the margins of the planned Quad Summit, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
The first in-person Quad Summit was hosted by the US in Washington in September and the upcoming meeting will be the first for Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Japan’s Kyodo news agency recently reported that preparations are underway to hold the next Quad Summit in Tokyo.
The summit could be held as early as January and the members of the Quad have reached an understanding that the next three in-person summits should be hosted by Japan in 2022, India in 2023 and Australia in 2024, the people cited above said.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi agreed during a phone conversation on Monday the two sides will work together for the “early realisation of...Kishida’s visit to India” and coordinate to hold the next 2+2 ministerial dialogue, according to a readout from Japan’s foreign ministry.
The first India-Japan 2+2 dialogue was held in New Delhi in November 2019 and the two sides had explored the possibility of holding the second meeting in April this year. The two countries signed the Agreement on Reciprocal Provision of Supplies and Services in September 2020 to allow their militaries to access each other’s bases for logistics support, and the second 2+2 dialogue is expected to build on security cooperation across the Indo-Pacific.
The next Quad Summit is set to have a packed agenda, with the key deliverable being the donation of more than 1.2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines across the Indo-Pacific by the end of 2022. These doses will be US-developed vaccines manufactured at India’s Biological E with financial support from the US and Japan, while Australia will back last-mile vaccine rollouts and lead in coordinating last-mile delivery efforts.
Countering China’s aggressive actions across the Indo-Pacific and framing standards for critical technologies such as 5G and AI are also expected to be on the agenda, the people said.
The US National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, Kurt Campbell, said at an event organised by the United States Institute of Peace on Friday that all members of the Quad “recognise that the critical, crucial member in the Quad is India”, and Washington and New Delhi have a “desire and dynamism” to tackle problems together.
Over the next year, the Quad will work on rolling out Covid-19 vaccines, creating infrastructure in Southeast Asia, investing in education and technology, including 5G, and cooperating in cyber, space and maritime domain awareness, he said.
Campbell also said the standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the death of Indian troops in the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020 had resulted in a “real sense of heightened tensions” between China and India. He added that it “would be difficult to exaggerate the strategic significance that has had in Delhi”, and there is a “new strategic paradigm which has forced or encouraged India to reach out and to build stronger bonds” with the US and other countries.
At the same time, American participation in the Quad signals “that the US is here to stay in the Indo-Pacific and we’re going to defend and support the operating system that has been so good for so many of us for many years”, Campbell said. He also acknowledged that Chinese President Xi Jinping indicated during his recent virtual summit with US President Joe Biden that a number of things the US is doing, including Quad and AUKUS, are causing China “some heartburn”.
