Quad to expand maritime security cooperation at Biden’s farewell summit via Reuters
By Trevor Hunnicutt and David Brunnstrom
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – The leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the United States will announce plans for new security measures in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, with outgoing US President Joe Biden chairing his colleagues in the Quad group formed due to shared concerns about. China.
Biden will host Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a four-way meeting near his hometown of Wilmington to stress the importance of maintaining the Quad, which he sees as a foreign policy success, before he leaves office after November’s US presidential election. 5.
Senior Biden administration officials told reporters that the leaders will announce plans to expand the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness launched two years ago to include the Indian Ocean region.
Leaders will announce a joint coast guard program that will see personnel from Australia, Japan and India spend time on a US coast guard ship. The countries will also announce plans to increase military cooperation, officials said.
They said the leaders would step up efforts to provide critical technology and security, including a new open radio access network, to the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia, regions of intense competition with China, Washington’s biggest strategic rival.
The health program will highlight cooperation in the fight against cervical cancer, officials said.
Analysts say the expected results will largely build on the work already done within the Quad, which Biden has elevated to the level of a conference in 2021. Saturday’s meeting will be the sixth meeting of the leader of the Quad.
Analysts say the new maritime security measures, which come as China ramps up pressure on its rivals in the South and East China Sea, will send a message to Beijing.
They said it would also represent another shift in the Quad’s operational emphasis on security issues, reflecting growing concern about China’s intentions.
Lisa Curtis, an Asia policy expert at the Center for New American Security, who has worked at the White House, the CIA and the State Department, said that India, which is not part of any military alliance, is worried about the idea that the Quad can. was the Indo-Pacific war.
“But I think China’s recent maritime aggression may change the equation for India and may cause India to be a little more open to the idea of Quad security cooperation,” he said.
Analysts and officials say Biden’s hosting of the Quad is part of an effort to install a council before his departure and that of Kishida, who steps down after next week’s leadership contest and next year’s Australian election.
“We are waiting for this Quad summit … to show that the Quad partners are aligned in a more important way than ever before, that they are committed to putting real resources behind this effort to provide public goods in the Indo-Pacific, and most importantly. , that the Quad is here to stay here,” said the American official.
The official noted that the Quad met at the level of the secretary of state under the previous administration of Donald Trump, who is running against Vice President Kamala Harris in November, and enjoyed bipartisan support, as shown by the formation of the Quad Caucus before the conference.
Albanese told reporters on Thursday that Canberra and Washington shared concerns about China’s security ambitions in the Pacific Islands where Beijing is seeking increased policing. “We will be discussing ways we can provide more support in the region to developing countries, including our action on climate change and supporting their energy security,” he said.
