On Friday, India, Australia, Japan, and the United States (US) held the first Leaders’ Summit of the Quadrilateral Framework. The meeting was virtually attended by the heads of state of all four countries—Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, PM Scott Morrison, PM Yoshihide Suga, and President Joe Biden. They discussed many issues of regional and global salience, such as maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific (FOIP), strengthening global supply chains, facilitating economic recovery, addressing climate change, and cooperating on issues of public health.
US President Biden, whose administration is credited with organising this meeting, began by expressing Washington’s interest in a FOIP, a goal which he described as “essential to each of our countries”. Biden said that it is of paramount importance that the Indo-Pacific is held together by “international law” and is “free from coercion”. Aside from strategic coordination, he also announced the launch of a joint partnership for vaccine manufacturing. Next, he voiced the US’ goal of coming together to combat climate change. To this end, he hailed the Quad as “vital arena for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific”.
Similarly, Indian PM Modi said that four countries are “united” by their “democratic values” and their shared commitment to a FOIP. He said that the Quad has emerged as an “important pillar of stability in the region” in terms of “advancing our shared values and promoting a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific”.
United in our fight against COVID-19, we launched a landmark Quad partnership to ensure accessibility of safe COVID-19 vaccines. India’s formidable vaccine production capacity will be expanded with support from Japan, US & Australia to assist countries in the Indo-Pacific region.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 12, 2021
Next, Australian PM Morrison welcomed what he saw as a “new dawn in the Indo-Pacific”, and extolled the benefits of a grouping that is built on “strategic trust, common hope, and shared values”. He said that the region will hold key influence in shaping the “destiny of our world in the 21st century”, and said that the four countries’ relations must be guided by “peace, stability, and prosperity”. He also hinted at perhaps expanding the Quad by collaborating with other nations in the region, particularly from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
An historic meeting for India, the United States, Japan and Australia - the first ever leaders’ meeting of the Quad.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) March 12, 2021
For us, this meeting is about how we keep Australia and the Indo-Pacific region we live in safe, stable and secure.
🇮🇳 🇺🇸 🇯🇵 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/Uk40KccJTJ
Following Morrison’s address, Japanese PM Suga, too, underscored his commitment to a FOIP and said that the Quad overcame “difficult circumstances” in 2017 to “regain fresh momentum”, which was evidenced by the Foreign Ministers’ meeting last October and this week’s Leaders’ Summit. He said that like after the Fukushima nuclear disaster ten years ago, when Japan received great support from India, Australia, and the US, the world must once again come together in light of the ongoing pandemic.
After the meeting, the four countries released a joint statement that reiterated their commitment to an Indo-Pacific that is “free, open, inclusive, healthy, anchored by democratic values, and unconstrained by coercion”. To this end, they came together to pledge their combined efforts towards “promoting a free, open rules-based order, rooted in international law to advance security and prosperity and counter threats to both in the Indo-Pacific and beyond”. They said that these goals would be guided by their support for “the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values, and territorial integrity”. Furthermore, they also expressed their interest in expanding their collaborative efforts to include ASEAN member-states.
Without mentioning China, the statement said that Quad’s foremost priority will remain strengthening the “role of international law in the maritime domain, particularly as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and facilitate collaboration, including in maritime security, to meet challenges to the rules-based maritime order in the East and South China Seas”.
Aside from the Indo-Pacific, they also noted other challenges, such as: “economic and health impacts of COVID-19, combat climate change, and address shared challenges, including in cyber space, critical technologies, counterterrorism, quality infrastructure investment, and humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief as well as maritime domains”.
The statement added that the four nations would seek to bolster the “health security” of nations around the world by expanding “safe, affordable, and effective vaccine production and equitable access, to speed economic recovery and benefit global health”.
On the topic of multilateral institutions, the four states called for a “results-oriented reform” of the WHO.
The Quad member-states also reaffirmed their support for the “complete denuclearisation of North Korea in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions” and for the release of Japanese abductees from North Korea. Furthermore, they also touched upon the “need to restore democracy and the priority of strengthening democratic resilience” in Myanmar, following the military coup last month.
In addition to the joint statement, the White House also released a separate Fact Sheet that details the establishment of the Quad Vaccine Partnership, the Quad Climate Working Group, and the Quad Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group.
The Vaccine Partnership will expand “multi-sectoral cooperation” to “achieve expanded manufacturing” of COVID-19 vaccines in India. This process will be jointly funded in part by the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and, the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC). Aside from production, they also made plans to launch a senior-level Quad Vaccine Experts Group to formulate plans for vaccine distribution and administration, working with financers and producers, and support the efforts of the WHO, COVAX, Gavi, CEPI, UNICEF, the G7, and the ASEAN, among others.
Similarly, the Quad Climate Working Group seeks to “strengthen implementation of the Paris agreement” and “keep a Paris-aligned temperature limit within reach” by “committing to advancing low-emissions technology solutions to support emissions reduction” and by cooperating on “climate mitigation, adaptation, resilience, technology, capacity-building, and climate finance”.
Lastly, the Quad Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group will “encourage cooperation on telecommunications deployment, diversification of equipment suppliers, and future telecommunications, including through close cooperation with our private sectors and industry”. It will also “facilitate cooperation to monitor trends and opportunities related to developments in critical and emerging technology, including biotechnology”.
Aside from putting in place plans to establish various working groups, they also committed to meeting through Foreign Ministers’ summits at least once a year, and an in-person Leaders’ summit by the end of the year.