PM to attend first Quad Summit on March 12
The HinduAccess to COVID-19 vaccines, cooperation on technology, and climate change are at the top of the agenda as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join U.S. President Joseph Biden, Australian PM Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga for a virtual summit of the Quadrilateral Framework on Friday — the first time leaders of the Indo-Pacific grouping are meeting. The meeting is also one of Mr. Biden’s first multilateral engagements, which the White House said denoted the importance of the U.S.’s cooperation with “allies and partners in the Indo Pacific”. In its statement ahead of the summit, the Ministry of External Affairs had said the leaders would discuss cooperation towards maintaining a “free, open and inclusive” Indo-Pacific region, as well as challenges such as “resilient supply chains, emerging and critical technologies, maritime security, and climate change.” Also on the agenda are talks about managing regional crises, including Myanmar, where military rulers continue to ignore global pleas against its decision to jail the elected government and the brutal crackdown on protestors, as well as Afghanistan, where the U.S. has outlined its latest plan to promote talks and chalk out a possible exit of its troops from the conflict. We have understood that these public platforms are created for certain requirements, provided they are transparent and open and they respect the international order,” former Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said at a seminar on India-China relations organised by Carnegie India, adding that China’s opposition to the Quad is unwarranted, given that the Quadrilateral Framework has “no treaty, no structure, and no secretariat” at present.