‘Here to stay’: Indo-Pacific Quad leaders to meet at White House
Al JazeeraThe leaders of the United States, Japan, India and Australia will meet on Friday for their first in-person person summit of the Indo-Pacific Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or so-called “Quad” grouping. Heading into the first in-person leaders meeting, the survival of the current iteration of the grouping across two US administrations and changes in governments in Japan and Australia “speaks to durability and how, you could say, the quad is here to stay,” Sameer Lalwani, a senior fellow for Asia strategy at the Stimson Center, told Al Jazeera. Following a summit in April, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga released a joint statement with US President Joe Biden criticising China’s “unlawful maritime claims and activities in the South China Sea”, actions surrounding the Japanese administered Senkaku Islands, while underscoring “the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”. An editorial in the Chinese state-run Global Times tabloid, which had previously derided the Quad grouping the “Asian NATO”, on Tuesday latched on to criticism that Biden’s actions were leading to a “new cold war”.