The Quad Summit is likely to take place in May with free and open Indo-Pacific, COVID-19 response, climate, clean energy, and infrastructure on the agenda. This comes after the US President Joe Biden accepted Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s invitation to visit Tokyo in the first half of 2022 on Friday.

The previous Quad Summit was held on September 24, 2021, in Washington.

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Hindustan Times reported that the Quad Summit has been announced but will take place only after the Australian general elections in May.

The reports further said that formal invites will be sent by Japan only after the dates convenient to all are finalised. A meeting of Quad foreign ministers and sherpas is also likely to set up the agenda for the summit.

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The meeting of Quad security grouping comes at a time when erstwhile Cold War powers US and Russia are locked on Ukraine, Shia Houthis in Yemen have targeted Sunni UAE with armed drones and China is eyeing Taiwan while building fortress Tibet and Sinkiang through massive Sinicization campaign.

While US President Biden accepted Kishida’s invitation for attending the Quad Summit, the big takeaways from the virtual summit was that Washington encouraged an increase in Japanese defence spending.

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Both the US and Japan have agreed on an economic dialogue in two plus two format with focus on building global supply chains not dependent on China.

This decision to intensify economic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific also dovetails into the Quad’s vision for alternate supply chains with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison facing adverse trade relations with China on account of mounting trade deficit and high tariff sanctions respectively.

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The Modi government is in talks with Indonesia as it is in proximity to Andamans and Nicobar Islands. Also, there is a discussion about the central government supplying Jakarta with BrahMos supersonic land attack missiles after Manila.