Now it depends on three other quad members – Australia, Japan and the US – to approve of holding a peak meeting on May 24.
New Delhi: Japan has proposed May 24 as the date for the next Quad Leaders Summit, to coincide with the visit of US President Joe Biden to Tokyo, even though the date has not been locked because it fell only a few days after the Australian election.
The White House has announced that Biden will travel to South Korea and Japan for May 20-24 and also attend the peak of a rectangular or quad security dialogue in Tokyo. Biden will also hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during the visit, the White House said.
People who are familiar with this problem said the Japanese initially proposed that the Quad Summit must be held in April, before proposing May 24. While the US has agreed to the proposal, the Australia has shown that the date was only a few days after that the State Election on May 21.
This problem is increasingly complicated for the Australian team as an election victory for Prime Minister Scott Morrison is not a certainty. The poll earlier this month had shown that the Morrison government could lose in federal elections.
Although Morrison consolidates his own position as an Australian choice leader, the vote shows the coalition of the Liberal-Liberal Party Morrison, who has a majority of a single seat in parliament, can lose up to 10 seats from the labor party.
Now it’s up to three other quad members – Australia, Japan and the US – to approve of holding a peak meeting on May 24, the people quoted above.
If the Summit goes according to plan, this will be the first direct meeting between Modi and Biden since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. They met during the Quad Summit which was held in the US last September and also participated in the virtual summit was held by Biden on March 3, shortly after hostility began in Ukraine.
At the virtual summit, Modi emphasized the need to return to the dialogue and diplomacy pathway – a message she also delivered in his telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – and also underline that Quad must remain focused on “Core Purpose” and stability in Indo-Pacific.
Modi also calls for concrete and practical cooperation in quads in fields such as humanitarian assistance and disaster assistance, debt sustainability, supply chains, clean energy, and connectivity.
White House spokesman Jen Psaki said, Biden Will, during his upcoming visit to South Korea and Japan, discussed opportunities to deepen vital security relations, improve economic bonds and expand close cooperation to provide practical results.