US President Joe Biden is set to host Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders Quad later this year. The summit will see the leaders from India, Australia and Japan. This will be the first first-ever Quad meeting that will be attended by its top leaders in person.
There has been no official confirmation of the dates of this meeting yet, however, Kurt Campbell, US Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific region made the announcement on Tuesday.
This will also mark the first-ever in-person meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden since he took charge of his office in 2020.
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Talking at an event hosted by the Asia Society think-tank, Campbell said that this Quad meeting will bring “decisive commitments in varied diplomatic circumstances related to Covid vaccines and infrastructure.
However, it is not yet confirmed if this summit will provide an opportunity for a bilateral engagement between India and the US.
In the last summit, the Quad resolved to distribute a billion Johnson & Johnson Covid doses among Indo-Pacific countries in 2022.
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Addressing the second wave of Covid in India, Campbell said the project was "on track" despite a surge in Covid-19 cases.
"The Quad has come of age," Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared earlier this year at the start of the summit of the leaders of the four nations to take the group to a next level of enhanced cooperation.
"We will work together closer than ever before for advancing our shared values and promoting our secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific," he said. "Today's summit shows that Quad has come of age. It will now remain an important pillar of stability in the region."
Quad is seen as a counterweight to an expansionist China in the Indo-Pacific region. In March this year, PM Modi, US President Joe Biden, Australian PM Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga held wide-ranging discussions during the first-ever Quad leaders' virtual summit.
