Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in America on Saturday on a three-day visit to attend the Quad Summit and address an important conference at the United Nations. Modi will also hold separate bilateral meetings with US President Joe Biden and other world leaders on the sidelines of the Quad summit in Wilmington, Delaware and the ‘Summit for the Future’ at the UN General Assembly in New York.
Modi reached Philadelphia for his onward visit to Wilmington. The annual Quad summit in President Joe Biden’s hometown of Wilmington is expected to launch several new initiatives to boost cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and explore ways to find peaceful solutions to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. Apart from Indian Prime Minister Modi, US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida will also attend the Quad summit.
Now the question arises that what is Quad Summit or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and why is it so important for India. Actually, Quad is a group of four countries, which includes Australia, India, America and Japan. Quad is an informal platform of four countries where strategic security dialogue takes place together. The objective of the Quad Group is to strengthen maritime security. It started in 2007, but stopped after Australia’s withdrawal in 2008. It was restarted in 2017.
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How was the quad formed?
The story of formation of Quad group started from the year 2004. In 2004, after millions of people in many countries including Japan and India died in the tsunami, India, America, Australia and Japan had formed a group to help many countries. This group later became the Quad. The initiative for the formation of Quad was taken by the then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. As the talks took place, the Quad was formed in 2007. This was the time when the four countries met formally for the first time. However, later due to China’s friendly attitude towards these countries, Quad almost stopped.
How did Quad become active again?
By 2017, China’s relations with the Quad countries started deteriorating. Then again Quad got a chance to stand. In 2017, a meeting of ASEAN countries was held in Manila. Apart from ASEAN countries, another meeting of Quad countries was held in Manila. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull participated in it. After this, a meeting of the Quad countries took place in the year 2021. Since then the Quad summit is continuing. This year in 2024, the Quad summit is being held in Delaware, America.
Why is Quad important for India?
The Quad Summit is important for India because it is a collective response to China’s growing economic and military influence. This dialogue helps India strengthen relations with its neighboring countries and promote regional security. Additionally, the Quad Summit helps India enhance its economic and military capabilities, so that it can compete with China.
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