15 key takeaways from Quad Summit at the White House

By Anish Kumar | First Published Sep 25, 2021, 12:43 PM IST

Amid the shared concern about China's rise in the Indo-Pacific region, the leaders of Quad member nations met on Friday and committed to redoubling their efforts to ensure that the grouping is a force for regional peace, stability and prosperity.

During the first in-person meeting, US President Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga discussed the regional and global issues apart from emerging technologies, climate change among others.

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Also Read: 'Stronger, closer and tighter': Biden and Modi vow to expand India-US relationship

With reference to the situation in Afghanistan, the leaders asked the Taliban to respect the values of human rights and ensure that no territory is used by the terror organisations.

Here are some key takeaways from the first in-person Quad leaders summit

* The heads of Quad nations -- India, Australia, Japan and the United States -- reiterated the need to promote an open, rules-based order, rooted in international law without being intimidated by coercion in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. 

* The Quad statement said that the grouping supports the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, democratic values, territorial integrity of states and peaceful resolution of disputes. The member states said they are willing to work together and with a range of partners in the region.

* The Quad leaders discussed international law, especially as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to meet challenges to the maritime rules-based order. It is must be mentioned that China has been assertively growing its footprint in the Indo-Pacific, which a major cause of concern for the countries that home in the region. In an effort to China’s challenge, Australia, the UK and the US have recently signed a trilateral pact for a security alliance, which is widely known as AUKUS.

* During the meeting, the leaders reaffirmed their strong support for ASEAN’s unity and centrality and for ASEAN’s Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. ASEAN is a regional group of 10 countries -- Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos Thailand, and Vietnam. The Quad outlined their dedication towards working with the group which the heart of the Indo-Pacific region in practical and inclusive ways.

Also Read: 'Democracies can get things done': Quad 'friends' meet at White House

* For South Asia, the Quad will closely coordinate their diplomatic, economic, and human-rights policies towards Afghanistan and will deepen the counter-terrorism and humanitarian cooperation in the months ahead in accordance with UNSCR 2593. The joint statement reiterated that Afghanistan's soil should not be used to target any country or provide safe haven to terrorists, or to plot and fund acts of terror.

* The Quad leaders denounced the use of terror proxies and reiterated the importance of denying any logistical, financial or military support to terrorist groups. They expressed that the Quad stands with the Afghan nationals and called on the Taliban to provide safe passage to any person wishing to leave Afghanistan and to ensure that the human rights of all Afghan citizens are respected.

* During their meeting, the Quad leaders reviewed the work related to Covid-19 vaccines that they had promised to manufacture, finance and supply to the Indo-Pacific region and the world. The Quad member states vowed to further enhance their science and technology relations in the fields of clinical trials and genomic surveillance to accelerate their efforts to end this pandemic and build better health security.

* The leaders expressed their views on climate change and said it must be addressed with urgency. The four countries vowed to cooperate in keeping the Paris-aligned temperature limits within reach and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Also Read: AUKUS not relevant, doesn’t have any impact on functioning of QUAD: India

* Quad countries will coordinate their diplomacy to raise global ambition, including reaching out to key stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific region. They have agreed to establish responsible and resilient clean-energy supply chains and will strengthen the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and climate information systems.

* The Quad members said that they are advancing their deployment of secure, open, and transparent 5G and beyond-5G networks, and working with a range of partners to foster innovation and promote trustworthy vendors and approaches such as Open-RAN.

* The Quad reiterated the role of governments in facilitating an enabling environment for 5G diversification. They also discussed ways to work together to facilitate public-private cooperation and demonstrate by next year the scalability of open, standards-based technology.

* With respect to the development of technical standards, sector-specific contact groups will be established for an open, inclusive, private-sector-led, multi-stakeholder, and consensus-based approach. Mapping the supply chain of critical technologies and materials, including semiconductors is on.

* On September 24, the leaders launched Quad Principles on Technology Design, Development, Governance, and Use that is aimed at guiding not only the region but the world towards responsible, open, high-standards innovation. A new Quad infrastructure partnership was also launched after the meeting. The Quad leaders also come together to combat cyber threats, promote resilience, and secure our critical infrastructure.

* In the space sector, the four countries will identify new collaboration opportunities and share satellite data for peaceful purposes such as monitoring climate change, disaster response and preparedness, sustainable uses of oceans and marine resources, and responding to challenges in shared domains.

* After their meeting, the leaders inaugurated the Quad Fellowship. The fellowship, which will be arranged by Schmidt Futures and have support from firms like Accenture, Blackstone, Boeing and Google, will provide 100 graduate fellowships to leading science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduate students from the four countries.

Also Read: India and Australia tell China: Can't equate QUAD with NATO

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