Joe Biden to host QUAD leaders as China concerns grow: What you need to know

Image courtesy:cnn.com

The Quad consists of four countries: the United States, Australia, India and Japan, hosted by President Joe Biden, are likely to announce new collaborations in the areas of Covid vaccine, space, 5G etc as issues like challenges in the Indo Pacific, climate change and the Covid pandemic are on the table.

The leaders will review the Quad Vaccine initiative which was announced in March this year. They will also take stock of the progress made since their first virtual summit on March 12, 2021, and discuss regional issues of shared interest. They will also exchange views on contemporary global issues such as critical and emerging technologies, connectivity and infrastructure, cyber security, maritime security, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, climate change and education.

The Quad will hold its first in-person meeting, on Friday, amid the fallout from a controversial new global joint security pact named as AUKUS, announced last week. Leaders from both these forums avoided mentioning China directly, but it's widely believed that their cooperation efforts are designed to counter China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

China has ramped up its deadly border dispute with India, launched a punishing trade blockage against Australia and stepped up military patrols around Japanese-controlled islands. The meeting is intended to send a clear signal to Beijing that the US and its allies in the Indo-pacific are serious about countering China's global ambitions.

China has described the Quad in the past as a clique based on a cold war ideology and "detrimental to the international order".

Modi is expected to raise objections to the Taliban's effort to get recognition at the United Nations. India also has concerns about the influence of Pakistan's intelligence service exerted in how factions of the Taliban divvied up government offices in Kabul.

Beyond the Quad summit, Mr Modi will also hold his first face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden on Friday. The meeting will be an opportunity for the two leaders to get to know each other better.

This bilateral meeting may not yield any tangible solutions to those issues. But it should allow Mr Modi and Mr Biden to move beyond existing quarrels and plan a new roadmap.