In message to China, Joe Biden to meet fellow Quad leaders on Friday
- This is the first such summit between the US president and the PMs of India, Japan and Australia, in an alliance seen as a bulwark against Beijing’s ambitions
- Timing of talks shows importance Biden places on ‘cooperation with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific’, White House spokeswoman says
US President Joe Biden will hold first-ever joint talks on Friday with the leaders of Australia, India and Japan, boosting an emerging four-way alliance often cast as a bulwark against China.
It will be one of the first summits, albeit in virtual format, for Biden, who has vowed to revive US alliances in the wake of the disarray of Donald Trump’s administration.
“That President Biden has made this one of his earliest multilateral engagements speaks to the importance that we place on close cooperation with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday.
Amid rising tensions with China, it will mark the first meeting at the leaders’ level of the so-called “Quad”.
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Both Psaki and India, which earlier announced the participation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said that the talks would take up climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic – two key priorities for Biden.