Key global issues will come up for discussion as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in the Leaders’ Summit of the Quadrilateral Framework being hosted next week by US President Joe Biden. The first-ever in-person Quad summit will be held on September 24. “President Biden is looking forward to welcoming to the White House Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

The four leaders will discuss ways to strengthen ties and advance practical cooperation on rolling out the ‘Quad Vaccine’ initiative  for COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis and China’s growing aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.

During the first-ever summit of the Quad leaders in the virtual format in March, the leaders had vowed to strive for a “free and open” Indo-Pacific as Beijing amplifies claims of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as being its sovereign territory. Ignoring Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam’s territorial claims,China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region.

“Hosting the leaders of the Quad demonstrates the Biden-Harris administration’s priority of engaging in the Indo-Pacific, including through new multilateral configurations to meet the challenges of the 21st century,” she said. India, Japan, US and Australia held the first Quad summit in Philippines’ capital Manila in November 2017 with discussions “focussed on cooperation based on their converging vision and values for promotion of peace, stability and prosperity in an increasingly inter-connected region that they share with each other and with other partners.”

They agreed that a “free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region serves the long-term interests of all countries in the region and of the world at large,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said after the summit.