WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday is meeting with leaders of an Indo-Pacific alliance known as “the Quad” as he wraps up a difficult week of diplomacy in which he faced criticism from both allies and adversaries.
The White House meeting with leaders from India, Japan and Australia gives Biden a chance to put the spotlight on a chief foreign policy goal: greater attention to the Pacific in light of what the United States sees as China’s coercive economic practices and unsettling military maneuvering in the region.
Before the summit gathering on Friday afternoon, Biden sat down with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office. He was also to have a one-on-one with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is soon to step down from his post.
With Modi by his side, Biden played up ties to India— referencing Vice President Kamala Harris’ Indian heritage and recalling getting a letter when he was a young senator from someone in Mumbai who shared his last name.
The president also made clear he saw tightening relations with the world’s biggest democracy — one that shares a neighborhood with Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and China — as vital for both sides.
“I’ve long believed the U.S.-India relationship can help us solve an awful lot of global challenges,” Biden said.
Modi, who met with Harris and American business leaders on Thursday, noted the importance of the Indian diaspora for the U.S. economy and said he wanted to find ways the two countries could work together to strengthen their respective economies.
At the afternoon summit, the Quad leaders were expected to announce a coronavirus vaccine initiative, plans to bolster semiconductor supply chains and a program to bring graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields to U.S. universities.
The Japanese and Indian governments welcomed a recent announcement that the U.S., as part of a new alliance with Britain and Australia, would equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
That will allow Australia to conduct longer patrols and give it an edge on the Chinese navy. But the announcement infuriated France, which accused the Biden administration of stabbing it in the back by squelching its own $66 billion deal to provide diesel-powered submarines.
Tensions between Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron eased after the two leaders spoke Wednesday and agreed to take steps to coordinate more closely in the Indo-Pacific.
Michael Green, who served as senior director for Asia at the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, said Japan and India welcome the United States-United Kingdom-Australian alliance “because it will really for the next 50 years reset the trajectories in naval power in the Pacific and from the perspective of those countries stabilize things as China massively builds up its naval forces.”
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian called it a reflection of “outdated Cold War zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical perception” that would intensify a regional arms race.
Beijing has also sought to push the notion that creation of the alliance indicates the U.S. will favor Australia in the Quad at the expense of Japan and India, said Bonny Lin, senior fellow for Asian security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
China also has tried to undercut the Quad as out of step with other nations in Southeast Asia and portrayed members of the Quad as “U.S. pawns,” Lin said.
The White House meeting is playing out as China continues making shows of force in the region concerning Taiwan.
During his busy week of diplomacy, Biden addressed the U.N. General Assembly and hosted a virtual global summit on COVID-19.
Biden and leaders of other wealthy nations faced criticism about the slow pace of global vaccinations and the inequity of access to shots between residents of wealthier and poorer nations. The pushback from leaders of low- and moderate-income countries came even as Biden announced plans for the U.S. to double to 1 billion doses its purchase of Pfizer vaccine to share with the world.
Modi was expected to bring up Afghanistan during his meeting with Biden and to raise objections to the Taliban’s effort to get recognition at the United Nations. The Indian government also has concerns about the influence it believes Pakistan’s intelligence service exerted in how factions of the Taliban divvied up government offices in Kabul.
Suga was expected to discuss China, North Korea, Afghanistan, the COVID-19 response and climate change.
North Korea last week said it successfully launched ballistic missiles from a train for the first time, striking a target in the sea some 800 kilometers (500 miles) away.
That test came after the North this month said it tested new cruise missiles, which it intends to make nuclear-capable, that can strike targets 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away, a distance putting all of Japan and U.S. military installations there within reach.
