 "China testing us, Biden tells Quad leaders; Modi discusses Bangladesh")
Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi said Quad was not against anyone and was here to stay. "Free, open, inclusive, and prosperous Indo-Pacific is our priority," Modi said in his opening remarks on Saturday at the summit hosted by President Joe Biden and also attended by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Four years since elevating the Quad to a leader-level format, the grouping is more strategically aligned than ever before and is a force for good that delivers real, positive, and enduring impact for the Indo-Pacific, a joint declaration by the four nations said after the Leaders Summit in Delaware, United States.
“As four leading maritime democracies in the Indo-Pacific, we unequivocally stand for the maintenance of peace and stability across this dynamic region, as an indispensable element of global security and prosperity. Anchored by shared values, we seek to uphold the international order based on the rule of law,” the Wilmington Declaration by the nations read. Wilmington is the hometown of the US President.
Quad announced a new regional Maritime Initiative for Training in the Indo-Pacific (MAITRI), to enable the partners in the region Indo-Pacific partners to maximise tools to monitor and secure their waters, enforce their laws, and deter unlawful behavior. India will host the inaugural MAITRI workshop in 2025.
The grouping also unveiled a Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network pilot project, to pursue shared airlift capacity among the four nations and leverage collective logistics strengths during natural disasters. The coast guards of all four nations will have a first-ever Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission in 2025 in the Indo-Pacific to improve interoperability.
Biden was caught on a hot mic telling leaders of the Quad nations that China was testing them. “We believe Xi Jinping is looking to focus on domestic economic challenges and minimise the turbulence in China,” Biden told the leaders at the Summit.
More From This Section
He added that China continued to "behave aggressively, testing us all across the region on several fronts, including on economic and technology issues".
Officially, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, (Quad) was conceived in 2017 by the United States, India, Japan and Australia as a space to cooperate for safeguarding shared security and other interests in the Indo-Pacific region. However, observers have pointed out that the forum's main objective is to counter China’s military and economic rise in the same waters.
On the sidelines, the Indian PM had a bilateral meeting with Biden at his home in Wilmington. Biden commended Prime Minister Modi for his historic visits to Poland and Ukraine, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in decades, and for his message of peace and ongoing humanitarian support for Ukraine, according to a joint bilateral statement released by both nations after the meeting.
Bangladesh also figured in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bilateral and multilateral meetings.
“There was an exchange of views with regard to the situation there,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.
India and US were both working to unlock $1 billion in new multilateral finance through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) for clean energy projects, including in India. "The funding could support supply-side manufacturing capacity expansion for key technology verticals, focusing on solar, wind, battery, energy grid systems, and high-efficiency air conditioner and ceiling fan supply chains," it said.
The Leaders also announced the selection of 11 funding awards between the National Science Foundation and India’s Department of Science and Technology, supported by a combined $5 million-plus grant to enable joint US-India research projects in areas such as next-generation telecommunications, connected vehicles and machine learning.