President Biden committed to meet in-person with the leaders of India, Japan and Australia at a summit by the end of this year, the White House said Friday.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Mr. Biden made the commitment in the first-ever “Quad” meeting of the four leaders in a virtual conference.
They also agreed to deliver more than one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the indo-Pacific region by the end of 2022.
While confronting and containing China is a primary goal of the group, Mr. Sullivan told reporters that the meeting “was not fundamentally about China.” He said much of the discussion focused on the pandemic and climate change, as well as North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and the coup in Burma.
He said the leaders did address freedom of navigation and “freedom from coercion” in the South and East China seas.
“They made clear that none of them have any illusions about China,” Mr. Sullivan said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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