BIDEN TO JOIN FIRST EVER ‘QUAD’ LEADERS MEETING, SAYS SOURCE
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden looks forward to engaging with his counterparts in Australia, India and Japan in the Indopacific region as soon as possible, according to a senior administration official.
Quad comprises Japan, India, Australia and the United States. The four countries had in 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the “Quad” or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China’s aggressive behaviour in the Indo-pacific region.
The informal grouping is strongly being pushed by the Biden administration.
“President Biden has had warm and productive early conversations with his counterparts in Australia, India, and Japan, and looks forward to engaging even more directly with our partners in the Indopacific as soon as possible,” a senior administration official told PTI.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison seemed to confirm this development on Friday. Morrison, who has seen trade hit by deteriorating relations with China, said he’d discussed arrangements with US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in recent weeks. He expected the talks would be followed by faceto-face meetings, he added.
“The Quad is very central to the United States and our thinking about the region, and looking at the Indo-pacific also through the prism of our Asean partners and their vision of the Indo-pacific,” Morrison said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.