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Quad Leaders' Virtual Meet on Thursday, "Indo-Pacific Developments" On Agenda

INTERNATIONAL: Quad leaders U.S. President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hold a meeting on Thursday.

Significantly, the virtual summit is taking place against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While India has chosen to abstain from votes in the United Nations against Russia, the three other members of Quad have backed Ukraine.

India's foreign ministry has said in a statement the meeting follows their September summit in Washington and that they would "exchange views and assessments about important developments in the Indo-Pacific".

While the US leads the international community in bringing crippling sanctions against the Vladimir Putin-led regime, Australia has called for Russia to be treated as a "pariah state" and reached out to provide aid to Ukraine as it puts up a defiant stand against the superpower. Japan, too, has imposed sanctions on Russian entities and offered to take in Ukrainians fleeing from war.

India has had a long-standing relationship with Russia and its ties with the US have strengthened over the past significantly over the past few years. Against the backdrop of Chinese aggression on its borders, India is walking a tightrope in its equations with Washington DC and Moscow.

The Joe Biden administration is trying to urge India to take a "clear position" on the Ukraine crisis, US diplomat Donald Lu has said.

"India has focused on two things when trying to explain its position, one that it continues to want to leave on the table the possibility of a diplomatic resolution of this conflict. The second thing that they emphasise is India has 18,000 students still in Ukraine, and they are trying to work with both the Governments of Ukraine and Russia to safeguard those," the top US diplomat has stated.

India has drawn criticism from US lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, at a hearing on the "US relationship with India" for being among 35 nations that abstained from a UN vote to rebuke Russia's invasion yesterday.

Responding to criticism made by the lawmakers of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr Lu has said, "Let me say that all of us have been working to urge India to take a clear position, a position opposed to Russia's actions."

It was not immediately clear on whose request the surprise meeting was called. None of the Quad countries had flagged it earlier.

Biden was originally scheduled to attend a summit of the grouping in May. Quad foreign ministers met in Australia early last month and have pledged to deepen cooperation to ensure the Indo-Pacific region was free from "coercion", a swipe at China's economic and military activities.

China has denounced the Quad as a Cold War construct and a clique "targeting other countries".



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