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US assumes leadership of Quad, says President Joe Biden convened upcoming summit
Biden, PM Narendra Modi, Australia’s PM Scott Morrison and Japan’s PM Yoshihide Suga will meet virtually on Friday for the first meeting of Quad leaders, marking a major milestone in the evolution of a group of nations bonded by a shared goal of containing China
The White House on Wednesday said elevating the Quad – which comprises India, the US, Australia and Japan - to a first summit-level meeting is an American initiative, adding that it has been convened by President Joe Biden.
Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will meet virtually on Friday for the first meeting of the Quad leaders, marking a major milestone in the evolution of a loose group of nations bonded by a shared goal of containing China.
Since its inception in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, the group had met only at the level of officials and ministers.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, confirmed reports of the Quad summit being a US initiative while announcing a meeting next week between secretary of state Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan with their Chinese counterparts.
This meeting “will follow the president’s convening of the Quad at the leader level, as well as his participation in the G7 leaders’ meeting just a few weeks ago”, Psaki said, reading from prepared notes that reflected the Biden administration’s desire to not only participate in the group but shape its course.
The Trump administration, which oversaw the revival of the Quad, had no plans of escalating it to the level of leaders despite nursing ambitions of turning it into an Indo-Pacific Nato.
“Regarding a Quad summit, no, there are no plans for that in the immediate short term,” a senior Trump administration official had told reporters last October in the dying days of Donald Trump’s tenure but ahead of the third edition of the 2+2 dialogue for which then secretary of state Mike Pompeo and then defence secretary Mark Esper were to fly down to New Delhi shortly. “But anything could happen in the future,” the official had said.
Speculation had been under way at the time about giving the dialogue a more formal and institutional structure, something like Nato.
“I will say that it is our view that in the passage of time, the Quad should become more regularised, and at some point, formalised as well as we really begin to understand what the parameters of this cooperation are and how we can regularise it,” then deputy secretary of state Stephen Biegun had said in October 2020 on his way home from India.
