It will be the first time there have been talks between the heads of state of the four-member Quad and it is because all four countries are seeing heightened tensions with China on a variety of issues.
“It has been confirmed that the Quad meeting will take place soon, probably on Friday,” the source said.
The Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is an informal strategic forum for the four countries involved and has organized semi-regular summits and information exchanges.
But the four heads of state, current US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, have never met.
While not a formal military alliance like NATO, the Quad is seen by some as a potential counterbalance to growing Chinese influence and perceived aggression in the Asia-Pacific region. The comparison has been denounced by Beijing as a bloc against China.
Morrison watched a press conference of the speeches last week.
“The Quad is very central to the United States and our thinking about the region,” said Morrison.
“This will be a hallmark of the Indo-Pacific involvement. But it won’t be a big bureaucracy with a big secretariat and things like that. It will be four leaders, four countries working together constructively for peace, prosperity and stability. Indo-Pacific, which is good for everyone in the Indo-Pacific, ”said the Australian Prime Minister.
Joint military exercises
On the military part of the Quad, cooperation has increased over the past year through bilateral agreements between Quad partners and joint military exercises.
Last November, Australia participated in the annual Malabar exercises with the US, Japan and India. The maneuvers, performed annually since 1992, have grown in scope and complexity in recent years to address what the US Navy has previously described as a “variety of shared threats to maritime security in the Indo-Asia-Pacific” .
With Australia’s participation, all four members of the Quad were involved in the exercises for the first time since 2007.
All four have had turbulent relations with China in recent years.
Indian and Chinese forces were involved in a military clash in June along the line of de facto control – the de facto border between the two countries in the Himalayas – in which troops on both sides were killed in hand-to-hand combat.
Relations between Beijing and New Delhi have been icy ever since, with both trade and technology disputes.
The US, meanwhile, has ramped up the pace of its sea and air missions in the South China Sea, reversing Beijing’s claims to the expansive waterway. It has also stepped up support from self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing says is its sovereign territory.
Asia and China have been a major focus of the Biden government’s foreign policy since taking office on January 20.
It will be the first international trip by Biden cabinet officials since the inauguration of the US president.
Japanese leader expects to visit Washington
Kato said in a daily press conference on Monday that the Japan-US summit would take place, but the date and details have not been decided.
If confirmed, Suga will be the first international leader to visit the White House under Biden’s government.
Blinken called the relationship between the US and Beijing this month “the greatest geopolitical test of the 21st century.” He said it is necessary to engage China from a strong position that can only be done alongside allies and partners.
“China is the only country with the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to seriously challenge the stable and open international system – all the rules, values and relationships that make the world work the way we want it to,” Blinken said in the speech on the Biden government’s national security strategy.
CNN’s Junko Ogura contributed to this report.