The Quad: Meeting global challenges
By Leigh Hartman
The Quad partners of the United States, India, Australia and Japan are responding to humanitarian crises while building a safer, more prosperous Indo-Pacific region.
On a March call, Quad leaders announced a new disaster relief mechanism to coordinate future humanitarian efforts in the Indo-Pacific and increase communication on each country’s response to the crisis in Ukraine. This mechanism will be part of the agenda at an upcoming meeting of Quad leaders.
On May 24, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will host his Quad counterparts in Tokyo. The leaders will address global challenges, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, to advancing maritime security and rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We are four major democracies with a long history of cooperation,” President Biden said at the first Quad leaders meeting in September 2021. “We know how to get things done, and we are up to the challenge.”
The four countries originally formed the Quad partnership to coordinate their humanitarian aid in response to the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The partnership has expanded to cooperation on issues including cyber and maritime security, emerging technologies and advancing people-to-people ties, among others.
At the first in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit September 24, 2021, at the White House, the leaders launched a new Quad Fellowship inviting students from the four countries to pursue graduate studies in science, technology, engineering and math fields in the United States.
The Quad is focused on delivering concrete results for the most important challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region, consistent with a new U.S. strategy issued in February for building a prosperous, secure and resilient Indo-Pacific region. The strategy outlines plans for cooperating with partners in the region, including Quad members, to support a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
During their March call, the Quad leaders affirmed their commitment to “a free and open Indo-Pacific, in which the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states is respected and countries are free from military, economic, and political coercion.”
The upcoming Quad Leaders’ Summit is the first hosted outside of the United States and signals Japan’s commitment to strengthening the Quad as well as its growing importance within the fabric of the Indo-Pacific.
Source: shareamerica.gov