US signals focus back on China, QUAD summit on May 24
Hindustan TimesWith White House announcing the QUAD summit during US President Joseph Biden’s bilateral visit to Japan and South Korea on May 24, Washington has signaled that it has not forgotten Indo-Pacific amidst the never-ending turmoil in Ukraine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US president Joe Biden, Japanese premier Fumio Kishida and Australian PM Scott Morrison While the White House statement makes it clear that President Biden will build on more than an year of intensive diplomacy with the Indo-Pacific with a US-ASEAN summit on May 12-13 in Washington, the message from US is clear that it has not forgotten China and that Ukraine is not the only agenda of America. Although the QUAD summit agenda is still work in progress, a very instructive exchange between US Senator Bill Hagerty and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Senate Appropriations Committee today shows that India and US are on the same page despite public pressure and media perception on Ukraine war. The May 24 QUAD summit in Tokyo will focus on building global supply chains, vaccine support and humanitarian disaster relief assistance with India playing forward in the Indian Ocean with its QUAD partners.