Leaders of U.S., India, Australia and Japan want 'free, open, resilient and inclusive' Indo-Pacific

President Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan, Australia and India wrote in a joint opinion piece that they are "recommitting to a shared vision for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, resilient and inclusive."

The piece by Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minster Yoshihide Suga said that the four world leaders will initiate an effort to help defeat COVID-19.

"Together, we pledge to expand and accelerate production in India of safe, accessible and effective vaccines," they wrote. We will partner at each stage to ensure that vaccines are administered throughout the Indo-Pacific region into 2022. We will combine our scientific ingenuity, financing, formidable productive capacity and long history of global-health partnership to surge the supply of life-saving vaccines, in close collaboration with multilateral organizations including the World Health Organization and Covax Facility.

"Our vaccine initiative will be guided by a Quad Vaccine Experts Working Group that brings together the sharpest scientific leaders from Australia, India, Japan and the United States to meet the region's pressing needs. And though the pandemic prevents us from meeting in person, we will do so before the end of 2021."

The leaders also described climate change as a pressing global issue that they will also seek to address.

"It is clear that climate change is both a strategic priority and an urgent global challenge, including for the Indo-Pacific region. That’s why we will work together and with others to strengthen the Paris agreement, and enhance the climate actions of all nations," they also wrote.