First quad summit

  • The first meeting of the leaders of the “Quad" countries—the US, India, Australia and Japan—held on 12th March.
  • Heads from all four countries came together for a virtual summit. 
  • The meeting focussed on the whole lot from Covid vaccine provides to local climate change. 
  • Before this, the highest level engagement was that of ministers. 
  • Foreign ministers of all four countries have met thrice in the last three years, twice in person and once virtually.
AREAS OF CO-OPERATION
  • The focus of the meeting was the Indo-Pacific, all four leaders made a mention of it.
  • 4 clear and specific areas of cooperation have been identified.
  1. Maritime security and cooperation
  2. Covid-19 related issues. 
  3. Climate change
  4. Economic and technological cooperation
QUAD HISTORY
  • It was first mooted by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007. But couldn’t move ahead with Australia pulling out of it, mostly due to Chinese pressure.
  • In 2017 with Donald Trump, gave shape to the long-pending "Quad" Coalition. 
  • This was mainly done to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence. 
  • Initially, the Quad was referred to as the quadrilateral safety dialogue. 
  • It is now referred to as the quadrilateral framework to point that it has gone past a slim safety dialogue.
  • In 2020 all four countries took part in the Malabar exercise 

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