NEW DELHI: US President Joe Biden will host a summit with leaders of India, Australia and Japan later this year. While there’s no official confirmation on the dates, this will be the first Quad meeting that will be held in person.
It will also be PM Narendra Modi’s first in person interaction with President Biden since the latter assumed the Oval Office. Kurt Campbell, US coordinator for the Indo-Pacific region, made the announcement on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Asia Society think-tank.
The Quad meeting will bring “decisive” commitments in vaccine diplomacy and infrastructure, Cambell said. It’s not yet clear if the summit could be combined with a bilateral engagement between India and US. In its last summit, the Quad resolved to distribute a billion Johnson & Johnson doses among Indo-Pacific countries in 2022.
The project was “on track” despite a surge in Covid-19 cases in India, Campbell said.
Quad is seen as a counterweight to an expansionist China in the Indo-Pacific region.
In March this year, PM Modi, US President Joe Biden, Australian PM Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga held wide-ranging discussions during the first-ever Quad leaders’ virtual summit. (www.indiatimes.com)
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