10 takeaways from the fourth Quad Summit
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was elected just hours back attended the meeting for the first time, along with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Joe Biden.
FollowAmidst the rapidly changing global order, the Quad leaders -- Australia, India, Japan, and the United States -- held their fourth Summit and second-in-person meeting on May 24 and vouched for working together for a 'free and open' Indo-Pacific region that has been witnessing China's belligerent behaviour in the region.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was elected just hours back attended the meeting for the first time, along with his Japanese and Indian counterparts Fumio Kishida and Narendra Modi and US president Joe Biden.
What are the 10 takeaways from the fourth Quad Summit
* Indo-Pacific Region
The Quad leaders reaffirmed to resolve to uphold the international rules-based order where countries are free from all forms of military, economic and political coercion.
* Quad Fellowship
In a bid to further enhance people to people ties, the leaders from four nations officially launched the Quad Fellowship, which is now open for application.
The Quad Fellowship will bring 100 students from four countries to the United States each year to pursue graduate degrees in STEM fields and is administered by Schmidt Futures.
* Covid-19 and Global Health Security
Noting significant expansion in the global supply of Covid-19 vaccines, the Quad nations will continue to share safe, effective, affordable and quality-assured vaccines where and when they are needed.
They have pledged, as members of the Group of Friends of UHC, to take global leadership to further strengthen and reform the global health architecture for enhancing PPR and promoting UHC in the lead up to the UN High-Level Meeting on UHC to be held in 2023.
* Ukrainian crisis
The Quad partners deliberated their respective responses to the conflict in Ukraine and the ongoing tragic humanitarian crisis and assessed its implications for the Indo-Pacific.
* Maritime Domain Awareness and HADR
The leaders launched a new maritime domain awareness initiative, the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA). It will support and work in consultation with Indo-Pacific nations and regional information fusion centres in the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands by providing technology and training to support enhanced, shared maritime domain awareness to promote stability and prosperity in our seas and oceans.
* Infrastructure
Reaffirming their shared commitment to deepen cooperation on infrastructure, the Quad leaders also shared a commitment to addressing debt issues, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic in many countries.
* Climate change
'Quad Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Package (Q-CHAMP)' was launched with its two themes 'mitigation' and 'adaptation'. In the area of 5G and beyond 5G, the participating nations will advance interoperability and security through the signature of a new Memorandum of Cooperation on 5G Supplier Diversification and Open RAN.
* Space
The Quad partner will endeavour to improve public access to Earth observation satellite data and applications. They have agreed to work together to create an Earth observation-based monitoring and sustainable development framework and also endeavour to share space-based civil Earth observation data, along with providing a 'Quad Satellite Data Portal' that aggregates links to our respective national satellite data resources.
The next in-person summit in 2023 will be hosted by Australia.
