Quad Summit: India to produce vaccines for Indo-Pacific region

New Delhi: At the first-ever Quadrilateral grouping's leaders' summit, member countries on Friday decided to launch a mega vaccine initiative under which Coronavirus vaccines will be produced in India for the Indo-Pacific region with financial assistance from the US and Japan while Australia will contribute in logistical aspects.

The Quad leaders also delved into the evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific and vowed to uphold a rules-based international order underpinned by respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, freedom of navigation and peaceful resolution of disputes.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Quad has come of age and its agenda covering areas like vaccines, climate change and emerging technologies makes it a force for global good.

Modi, in presence of US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, also talked about shared values and promoting a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.

"I see this positive vision as an extension of India's ancient philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which regards the world as one family," Modi said.

"We will work together, closer than ever before, for advancing our shared values and promoting a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific," he said.

Briefing reporters on the summit, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said it was decided that India's manufacturing capacity is something that is going to be leveraged to make US vaccines.

He said the financing for creation of additional capacities will come from the US and Japan while Australia will contribute to the last mile logistics and delivery issues. Australia will finance countries which are going to receive the vaccines.

"In today's context, it is one of the most important initiatives. We are talking about huge investments in creating additional vaccine capacities in India for exports to countries in the Indo-Pacific region for their betterment. We are talking about producing a billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2022," he said.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, US President Biden described Quad as a new mechanism to enhance cooperation and raise mutual ambition as the member states address accelerating climate change.

"A free and open Indo-Pacific is essential to each of our futures, our countries," Biden told the top leaders.

This is a group particularly important because it is dedicated to the practical solutions and concrete results," he said.

"We know our commitments...Our region is governed by international law, committed to all the universal values and free from coercion but I am optimistic about our prospect, he said, in an apparent reference to China which is flexing its muscles in the strategically vital region.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison thanked President Biden for brining in the four nations together and said that ''history teaches us that we are nations engaged together in a partnership of strategic trust of common hope and shared values, much can be achieved.''

Stating that it will be the Indo-Pacific that will now shape the destiny of the world in the 21st century, Scott said that "as leaders of four great liberal democracies in Indo-Pacific let our partnership be the enabler of peace, stability and prosperity."

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga recalled the 2004 Tsunami disaster when Quad first member states came together.

"We received massive support from the US, Australia, and India in our response to the disaster. Joe visited the affected area soon after the disaster, and I thank you once again," he said.

The evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific region in the wake of China's increasing military muscle-flexing has become a major talking point among leading global powers. The US has been favouring making Quad a security architecture to check China's growing assertiveness.

The Quad foreign ministers held their first meeting under the Quadrilateral or Quad framework in New York in September 2019.

In November 2017, India, Japan, the US and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.With Agency inputs