US President Joe Biden, who wants to strengthen the alliances of the United States vis-à-vis China, will receive the Prime Ministers of India, Japan and Australia on September 24 in Washington, the White House announced on Monday.
This quadrilateral summit (or "Quad" in the jargon of Washington) between Joe Biden, Scott Morrison (Australia), Narendra Modi (India) and Yoshihide Suga (Japan) should help
"strengthen ties and deepen cooperation"
that either in the face of Covid-19 or climate change.
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The four partners also want to
"commit to an open and free Indo-Pacific region"
, the diplomatic formula used to denounce Chinese regional ambitions.
The leaders of the "Quad" had already met on March 12, but remotely, and had launched working groups, in particular on vaccines against Covid-19.
This new summit, this time in the flesh, underlines according to the White House that the Indo-Pacific region is indeed one of the
“priorities”
of the Biden administration, which intends to rely on
“new multilateral configurations in the face of to the challenges of the 21st century, ”
according to a press release. Drafted after the devastating tsunami of 2004 and formalized in 2007, the "Quad", for "Quadrilateral Security Dialogue", was more than sleepy before the coming to power of Joe Biden, decided to revive it.
The Democratic President, if he has kept a hard line vis-à-vis China more or less comparable to that of Donald Trump, approaches the confrontation with Beijing very differently. Joe Biden, who wants to go beyond the only face-to-face meeting between the two super-powers, hopes to revive the game of diplomatic alliances, and encourage his traditional allies to take frank positions vis-à-vis China.