Leaders of the United States, Japan, India and Australia have pledged to pursue a free and open Indo-Pacific region “undaunted by coercion” at their first in-person summit, which presented a united front amid shared concerns about China.
The two-hour meeting on Friday at the White House of the Quad, as the grouping of four major democracies is called, will be watched closely in Beijing, which criticised the group as “doomed to fail”.“ We stand for the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values, and territorial integrity of states,” US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a joint statement after the talks.