CANBERRA: Prime Minister’s participation in the Quad Leaders’ Summit

CANBERRA: Prime Minister Shri Narendra
Modi participated in the first in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit in Washington
D.C., USA on 24 September 2021, along with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of
Australia, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan, and President Joseph Biden
of the United States of America. The Leaders had a very useful exchange of
views which reinforced the shared interests, values and underlying principles
in which the Quad framework was anchored.

The Leaders shared their respective perspectives on Afghanistan and the
regional situation in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific. On Afghanistan, they
agreed to deepen their cooperation in counter-terrorism, humanitarian
assistance and called on the Taliban to abide by UN Security Council Resolution
2593.

The Leaders denounced the use of terrorist proxies and emphasized the
importance of denying any logistical, financial or military support to
terrorist groups which could be used to launch or plan terror attacks,
including cross-border attacks.

The Quad Leaders took stock of progress made since their March 2021 Summit,
especially the Covid-19 vaccine partnership. They welcomed Prime Minister’s
announcement that India will start supply of India-made Covid 19 vaccines to
the Indo-Pacific region with eight million doses, from October 2021. With the
objective of normalising international travel and ensuring predictability,
Prime Minster proposed common travel norms among countries and mutual
recognition of vaccination certificates.

The Leaders discussed affirmative actions towards climate change,
decarbonization efforts in shipping and port operations, deployment of clean
hydrogen technology, the need for responsible and resilient clean energy supply
chains. In this context, Prime Minister proposed a Global Green Hydrogen
coalition, given our respective strengths and capabilities.

The
Leaders also launched a Shipping Taskforce that will coordinate greening and
decarbonizing the shipping value chain. Mumbai Port Trust will participate in
this initiative along with ports from the other three Quad countries.

The Leaders issued the Quad Principles on Technology Design, Development,
Governance, and Use that will guide not only the region but the world toward
responsible, open, high-standards innovation.

To facilitate and strengthen people to people linkages, the Leaders announced a
Fellowship program for 100 students per year to pursue Masters and Doctoral
degrees in STEM fields in USA.

A Quad Infrastructure Coordination Group was launched to share assessments of
regional infrastructure needs and coordinate approaches, technical assistance
and capacity-building efforts,

The Leaders also setup a space cooperation working group to exchange satellite
data for monitoring and adapting to climate change, disaster preparedness, and
responding to challenges in shared domains.

The Summit was an opportunity for the Leaders to build on the Quad’s positive
momentum and its constructive agenda to make it a force for global good. The
Leaders reiterated their commitment and shared vision for a free, open and
inclusive Indo-Pacific region. They agreed to maintain regular contact and
continue the high-level dialogue.

Summit outcome documents

a. Joint Statement
b. Fact sheet
c. State of Principles on Technology Design, Development and Governance