Jakarta, CNN Indonesia –

president United States of America Joe Biden invited the leaders of the allied countries of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) to meet on Friday (September 24th) at the White House. Five key issues were discussed at the meeting.

This meeting takes place amid the chaos of the new security partnership between the US, UK and Australia (AUCUS), which sparked criticism from many other allied countries in Uncle Sam’s country, particularly France.

Quad is a strategic partnership between the USA, India, Japan and Australia that has existed since 2007.

A senior White House official said today’s meeting of Quad leaders is aimed at strengthening collaboration in areas such as infrastructure, health and cybersecurity.

Even so, the official said the meeting of President Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will not focus on discussing security issues amid China’s growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

“We will discuss issues related to infrastructure, broader cooperation in the fields of health, space science and technology and even cyberspace,” said the US official on condition of anonymity.

The office said Biden Cs would discuss more about sourcing Covid-19 vaccines for the Indo-Pacific region.

The official said the Quad countries had committed to delivering 1 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in Asia by the end of March 2022.

That ambition was delayed, however, after India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, was hit by a new, more severe wave of Covid-19 in April.

The new Covid-19 wave was exacerbated by the spread of the more virulent Delta variant of the coronavirus. This has forced India to stop exporting the Covid-19 vaccine to meet its domestic needs first.

US officials said today’s meeting was “historic” and an opportunity for the four countries to publicly discuss their “modern challenges, hopes and aspirations” regarding the current geopolitical state of the world.

“The connection and strengthening of relations between our four countries is happening right before our eyes. We are really trying to create opportunities for freer, more open discussions, ”said the official.

Quoted by Reuters, this quad country meeting took place a week after the announcement of AUKUS by the USA, Great Britain and Australia. In the new partnership, the US and UK agreed to equip Australia with nuclear submarines and Tomahawk missile systems.

Some analysts say AUKUS is being referred to as a form of the US and Cs to counter China’s dominance in the Indo-Pacific.

In addition to China, France, a US ally, is angry with the AUKUS partnership. According to Paris, the United States had betrayed France with the partnership and stabbed in the back.

The US official said today’s quad meeting had “nothing to do” with the AUKUS partnership.

“This is an independent group and has nothing to do with AUKUS, which has just been founded. The quad is an informal group that does not discuss safety issues, ”the official said.

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