On 11th February 2022, the Quad Foreign Ministerial meeting Melbourne, Australia. This was the fourth ministerial meeting that was held. During the meeting, the leaders focused on the Quad’s commitment to supporting Indo Pacific countries’ efforts to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific region that is inclusive and resilient, and in which states strive to protect the interests of their people, free from any kind of threat. Besides the quadrilateral meeting, the four Foreign Ministers also held bilateral meetings amongst themselves. The leaders at the summit discussed the topics such as vaccine manufacturing and delivery, HADR, cyber security, countering misinformation and counter-terrorism.
The Quad have collectively provided more than 500 million vaccine doses. And further have decided to donate more than 1.3 billion vaccines worldwide. The Quad Vaccine Partnership’s rapid progress in expanding vaccine production at the Biological E Ltd facility in India, which aims to deliver at least 1 billion vaccines by the end of 2022. The countries have been training healthcare workers to combat covid 19 as well as to help in the recovering process. The countries have been collected as well as individually been working towards gender, disability and social inequities, and ensuring safe, effective, affordable and quality-assured vaccination.
Marise Payne, the Australian Foreign Minister have stated, “We are a vital network of liberal democracies committed to practical co-operation, including to support a regional recovery and to ensure all Indo-Pacific nations, large and small, are able to make their own strategic decisions, free from coercion.”
The countries together have been working towards establishing and abiding international law to bring peace and stability in the region as well as around the world. The Quad has been working towards international peace and stability in cyberspace, and to help build the capacity of regional countries to implement the UN Voluntary Framework for Responsible State Behaviour in Cyberspace. The leaders have committed themselves towards clean energy supply chains. The leaders have agreed with Australia’s proposal to host an Indo-Pacific Clean Energy Supply Chain Forum in mid-2022. They further declared and gave their support to ASEAN to end the violence and coup in Myanmar and also that the arbitrarily detained should be released as soon as possible. They also are against the constant activities of North Korea with nuclear weapons and the country going against the UN Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs), reaffirming their commitment to the complete de-nuclearisation of North Korea.
The group declared their work and commitment towards the peace and stability of the region and that they will meet annually to work on their objectives and also discuss their framework for the future with the other leaders. As part of their agenda, they will be meeting in Japan in the first half of 2022 for the next Quad Leaders’ Summit.
