Quad summit with India, Australia and Japan 'went very well': Biden

After attending the Quadrilateral (Quad) summit with India, Australia and Japan, US President Joe Biden said that the event "went very well". The summit was attended by all heads of state—Prime Minister Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. "It [Quad summit] went very well. Everyone seemed to like it a great deal," Biden told reporters.

In November 2017, India, Japan, the US and Australia had given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence, and to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the region. The foreign ministers of the Quad member nations met in Tokyo and reaffirmed their collective vision for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. The foreign minister of the four countries held their first meeting under the Quadrilateral or Quad framework in New York in September 2019.

In his address to Quad leaders on Friday, Biden had said that it was going to be a vital arena for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. He also described Quad as a new mechanism to enhance cooperation and raise mutual ambition as they address accelerating climate change. "We know our commitments. Our region is governed by international law, committed to all the universal values and free from coercion but I am optimistic about our prospect," he said.

"The Quad is going to be a vital arena of cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and I look forward to working closely with all of you in the coming years," Biden told Quad leaders. The four countries plan to establish a series of working groups that will focus on climate change, critical and emerging technologies, including working to set technology standards and norms and jointly developing some of the critical technologies of the future.