QUAD summit: India, Japan, Australia & US scheduled to meet in Tokyo on May 24

The leaders of the QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) strategic alliance are scheduled to meet in the capital city of Japan, likely on May 24. The upcoming in-person conclave comes to the fore after leaders of four major democracies as members of the QUAD met in Washington on September 24, 2021. 

In November 2017, defense cooperation and strategic partnership between India, the US, Australia, and Japan finalised the long-pending proposal of constituting QUAD amid China's growing assertion in the Indo-Pacific region. 

QUAD leaders set to meet in Tokyo

The White House said that US President Joe Biden will officially visit South Korea between May 20 to 24 and Japan in May 2022 and attend the QUAD summit in Tokyo thereafter. "During which, he will also meet India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi," the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday. 

"This trip will advance the Biden-Harris Administration's rock-solid commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," the US official added. 

Also, Biden is set to hold bilateral meetings with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister of Japan Kishida Fumio. "The leaders will discuss opportunities to deepen vital security relationships, enhance economic ties and expand our close cooperation to deliver practical results. In Tokyo, President Biden will also meet the leaders of the QUAD grouping of India, Japan, Australia, and the US," Psaki said while stating that further details about the trip will be shared soon.

Experts say that this cooperation between major democracies was imperative owing to China's sea-route intrusion across the Indo-Pacific region. To note, several world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open, and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China's visibly growing military maneuvering and drills.

China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea.

"We (QUAD member states) know how to get things done," Biden had said during the first in-person meet last year.