Tokyo, 12 April, /AJMEDIA
U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday he is planning to visit Japan in late May for a “Quad” summit also involving the leaders of Australia and India, a meeting that is likely to showcase the deepening ties of the four major Indo-Pacific democracies in the face of China’s growing assertiveness in the region.
Biden made the remarks at the beginning of a virtual meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he is looking forward to seeing him in Japan “about the 24th of May.” It will be the president’s first visit to Japan since assuming office in January 2021.
The war in Ukraine is also likely to top the agenda at the May summit. The remote meeting took place as India, which historically has close ties with Russia, has stood out among the Quad members by not explicitly condemning Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine and refusing to join in with sanctions.
Modi told Biden that the situation in Ukraine is “very worrying,” emphasizing India’s belief in the importance of safeguarding civilians and its provision of humanitarian assistance to the East European country, while the United States seeks to further isolate Russia from the global economy to end its aggression.
Biden made “very clear” during the one-hour bilateral summit that he does not believe it is in India’s interest to increase imports of Russian energy and other commodities, according to the White House.
He also conveyed the United States’ eagerness to help India diversify its sources of oil, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
Psaki pointed out that the United States is currently a much bigger supplier than Russia, which only accounts for about 1 or 2 percent of India’s total crude imports.
According to Reuters, India has bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian crude oil since the start of the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, lured by steep discounts following Western sanctions. The figure compares with around 16 million barrels from Russia in the whole of last year, it said.
Modi, meanwhile, welcomed the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a regional engagement initiative that the Biden administration is promoting amid efforts to push back against China’s increasing economic clout.
The initiative will be launched “in the weeks ahead,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said later in the day, highlighting the benefits of working on areas such as supply chain resilience and infrastructure investment.
The online summit was followed by an in-person ministerial-level dialogue in Washington involving the two countries’ top diplomats and defense chiefs.
Known for having a complicated economic and security partnership with Russia, India has historically obtained a majority of its weapons from Moscow.
But the Biden administration has indicated that the Quad should stand against “flagrant examples” of countries flouting the rules-based international order, noting that the group’s principles to pursue a “free and open Indo-Pacific” should transcend any geographic region.
