Quad leaders press for free Indo-Pacific, with wary eye on China
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[September 25, 2021]
By Steve Holland, David Brunnstrom, Nandita Bose and Michael
Martina
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Leaders of the United
States, Japan, India and Australia vowed on Friday to pursue a free and
open Indo-Pacific region "undaunted by coercion" at their first
in-person summit, which presented a united front amid shared concerns
about China.
The two-hour meeting at the White House of the Quad, as the grouping of
four major democracies is called, will be watched closely in Beijing,
which criticized the group as "doomed to fail."
" We stand for the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight,
peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values, and territorial
integrity of states," U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime
Minister Scott Morrison, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a joint statement after the
talks.
While China was not mentioned in the public remarks by the four leaders
or in the lengthy joint statement and a factsheet issued afterwards,
Beijing was clearly top of mind.
Their statement made frequent mention of the leaders' insistence on
rules-based behavior in a region where China has been trying to flex its
muscles.
"Together, we recommit to promoting the free, open, rules-based order,
rooted in international law and undaunted by coercion, to bolster
security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond," they said.
The Quad leaders also voiced support for small island states, especially
those in the Pacific, in order to enhance their economic and
environmental resilience.
Additionally, they urged North Korea to engage in diplomacy over its
nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, which Pyongyang has
refused to do unless international sanctions are dropped.
The leaders took steps to expand vaccines worldwide, welcoming India's
plan to resume exports in October.
After the meeting, Suga told reporters the countries agreed to cooperate
on vaccines, clean energy and space, and to hold a summit meeting every
year.
Modi told his fellow Quad leaders India would permit export of 8 million
COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of October under a deal the grouping
reached in March to supply a billion doses to the Indo-Pacific, India's
foreign secretary said.
The plan to supply a billion doses across Asia by the end of 2022
stalled after India, the world's largest vaccine producer, banned
exports in April amid a massive COVID outbreak at home.
India has said when it restarts vaccine exports it will prioritize the
COVAX international vaccine initiative and neighboring countries.
The Quad announced several new pacts, including one to bolster supply
chain security for semiconductors and to combat illegal fishing and
boost maritime domain awareness.
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India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a 'Quad nations'
meeting at the Leaders' Summit of the Quadrilateral Framework hosted
by U.S. President Joe Biden with Australia's Prime Minister Scott
Morrison and Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in the East Room
at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 24, 2021.
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
It also rolled out a 5G partnership and plans to
track climate change.
"Acknowledging the role of governments in fostering an enabling
environment for 5G diversification, we will work together to
facilitate public-private cooperation and demonstrate in 2022 the
scalability and cyber security of open, standards-based technology,"
the leaders said.
The meeting came just over a week after the United States, Britain
and Australia announced an AUKUS security pact that will provide
Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, a move roundly denounced
by Beijing.
A Japanese government spokesman said Suga told the meeting that
Japan considered the AUKUS partnership to be "taking an important
role for the peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific region."
U.S. officials had sought to play down the security aspect of the
Quad before the meeting, even though members carry out naval drills
together and share concerns about China's growing power and attempts
to exert pressure on all four countries.
Morrison said AUKUS and the Quad were "mutually reinforcing."
He told reporters, "That's the whole point of the Quad and AUKUS.
They're not there to replace anything but to add to it."
In a briefing on Friday a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman
appeared to criticize the Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue,
as it is formally known.
"A closed, exclusive clique targeting other countries runs counter
to the trend of the times and the aspirations of regional
countries," said the spokesman, Zhao Lijian.
"It will find no support and is doomed to fail."
China has denounced the Quad as a Cold War construct and says the
AUKUS alliance would intensify a regional arms race.
(Reporting by Michael Martina, David Brunnstrom, Steve Holland,
Nandita Bose and Simon Lewis in Washington and Yoshifumi Takemoto
and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and
Clarence Fernandez)
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