President Biden joined the leaders of India, Japan and Australia in committing to a “free, open, secure and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region in a
Washington Post op-ed published Saturday.
Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister
Yoshihide Suga and Australian Prime Minister
Scott Morrison teamed up with Biden in a vow to invest in the “region in need” amid the climate crisis, coronavirus pandemic and other issues confronting the zone.
The leaders pointed to the 2004 tsunami that struck the area, prompting the four democratic countries, called “the Quad,” to work together for the first time to respond to the disaster.
“Now, in this new age of interconnection and opportunity throughout the Indo-Pacific, we are again summoned to act together in support of a region in need,” the countries’ leaders wrote.
The four leaders expressed their goals to obtain an “accessible and dynamic” Indo-Pacific region that promotes the “freedom of navigation,” “peaceful resolution of disputes” and the ability for all countries “to make their own political choices, free from coercion.” They noted the ideal vision has “increasingly been tested” in recent years.
Biden, Modi, Suga and Morrison pledged to coordinate to enhance the Paris climate agreement and climate goals around the globe and to resolve the coronavirus pandemic through ensuring the accessibility of vaccines.