Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the first meeting of QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) leaders in virtual mode, today at 7 pm (Indian time). The gathering will be attended by US President Joseph R Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison, besides Modi.
Read more: PM Narendra Modi to attend the first QUAD meeting today
During the virtual Summit, the leaders are assumed to address regional and global issues of shared interest, and share views on areas of collaboration for maintaining a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. Meanwhile, the remarks made by Australia, Japan and the United States hints that the meeting will address the concern arising from China in the Indo-Pacific. India will concentrate more on the larger issue of security and freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific.
The other domain of focus for India at the virtual meet will be to extend itself as a reliable partner in the pharma sector, while also re-emphasizing the point of “resilient supply chains” as an option to the existing ones with China.
The QUAD is a floor of similar-minded countries — India, the USA, Australia and Japan — that share similar traits of democracy, pluralism and market-based economy and have growing convergences in strategic and security perceptions, especially in the Indo-Pacific region.
The concept of QUAD came about as first as 2004 when the four countries made a “core group” for a joint response to the Indian Ocean tsunami to undertake rescue and relief operations.
However, the notion as a forum was launched as a dialogue in August 2007 by then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on “seas of freedom and prosperity”, with the assistance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, Vice President Dick Cheney of the US and Prime Minister John Howard of Australia.
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