Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a high-profile visit to the United States on Saturday (September 21), where he will attend the Quad Leaders' Summit hosted by US President Joe Biden in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. Modi will join Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida at the Summit.
In the final weeks of his presidency, Biden is expected to speak about rising tensions between China and its neighbours in the South China Sea, along with expanded cooperation among the member-states and the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, US officials told Reuters. The leaders are also expected to deliberate on health security, climate change, emerging technologies, infrastructure, connectivity, counterterrorism and humanitarian assistance.
"We expect new initiatives to be announced," Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said. The Quad leaders will unveil a "milestone" initiative to prevent, detect, treat and alleviate the impact of cancer on patients and their families. Misri said there will be a strong focus on peace, progress and stability in the Indo-Pacific at the Quad summit.
This year's Quad summit was originally scheduled to be held in India, but the venue was shifted to the US after looking at the schedule of the four leaders, she said. "So Prime Minister Modi graciously agreed to swap host years with us, and we do expect all four Quad leaders to meet in India next year," said Mira Rapp-Hooper, White House National Security Council Senior Director for East Asia and Oceania at a press conference.
Quad 2024 to feature ambitious announcements
A top White House official said the high-level summit in Delaware will feature ambitious announcements in multiple areas such as maritime security, high-quality infrastructure and critical and emerging technologies to demonstrate the group's endurance. It is also expected to send a strong message to China as a strong bipartisan institution.
“This year’s Quad Summit will feature ambitious announcements in the areas in which the Quad has grown and is used to working and where Indo-Pacific partners prioritise the Quad’s delivery. These include health security, humanitarian and disaster response, maritime security, high-quality infrastructure, critical and emerging technologies, climate and clean energy, and cyber security,” said Rapp-Hooper.
"For example, given the great work that the Quad has already done to deliver COVID vaccines or improved maritime domain awareness architecture to the Indo-Pacific region, what should be its direction of travel in its next chapter? So I expect that will be top of the agenda when the leaders take a forward-looking lens to the future of the Quad,” the official said.
"A new Quad maritime security initiative would send a very strong signal to China, that its maritime bullying is unacceptable, and that it would be met with coordinated action by this coalition of like-minded nations," Lisa Curtis, an Asia policy expert at the Center for a New American Security and former US administration official, told Reuters. "China's recent maritime aggression, could be changing the equation for India, and could be prompting India to become a bit more open to the idea of Quad security cooperation."
'India seen as leader in Quad'
Rapp-Hooper said the US is viewing India as a leader within the Quad, as evident by PM Modi's visit to Ukraine and offers to participate in peace talks. She said the Biden administration is grateful for New Delhi's role in the four-nation grouping. “When it comes to the role that we expect India to play, we expect and indeed see India as a leader within the Quad," she said on Thursday (local time).
“The Quad has been an ideal venue through which, rather, we can work together because it not only allows for the critical exchange of strategic views where, of course, we are, as I say, increasingly aligned, but also it allows us to identify opportunities and priorities that not only matter to the United States or its traditional treaty allies like Australia and Japan but really matter to India,” she added.
Earlier, Misri told a media briefing that New Delhi is involved in a set of several conversations with important partners and leaders on it. "We are involved in a set of several conversations with several important partners and leaders at this point in time. These conversations are a work in progress and we will update you on the results of this conversation at the right time," he said.
In recent times, India has become more vocal on the Russia-Ukraine talks and has hinted at a possible role in mediating in the talks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who recently became one of the few leaders to visit both Russia and Ukraine, has repeatedly advocated for dialogue and diplomacy in the conflict and that India stood with its allies towards a possible peace.
(with inputs from agencies)
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