By Steve Holland, David Brunnstrom, Nandita Bose and Michael Martina

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leaders of United States, Japan, India and Australia, sharing concerns about China’s growing power and behavior, meet in person as a group for the first time on Friday for a summit expected to bring progress on COVID-19 vaccines, infrastructure and technological cooperation.

Just over one week ago, the United States of America, Britain, and Australia signed an AUKUS security agreement under which Australia would receive nuclear-powered submarines. This was strongly denounced in Beijing.

Following Modi’s morning bilateral meeting, Joe Biden (the U.S. president), Narendra Modi of India, Yoshihide Suuga from Japan, Scott Morrison the Australian prime minister, and Yoshihide Shige Suga the Japanese prime minister, they will all meet at the White House. After the Quad summit, Biden will meet with Suga separately.

A senior U.S. government official said to Reuters that they have “deliverables in infrastructure” and on broader engagements related to science, technology, space, cyber.

The official stated that specific agreements include one to improve supply chain security in semiconductors, which is a highly competitive area with China. This agreement will require mapping total capacity and identifying vulnerability.

A 5G deployment effort and diversification effort would support governments “fostering and supporting a diverse resilient secure telecoms ecosystem.”

According to the official, they would also exchange information in order to fight illegal fishing, increase maritime domain awareness, and help monitor climate change.

The official said that the summit will “have much” to discuss next steps regarding plans to provide a billion COVID-19 shot across Asia by 2022. This initiative was agreed to at the virtual Quad summit in March. However, it was stalled when India, the largest global vaccine producer banned imports from April due to a large COVID epidemic at home.

According to the official, “The details of what India will commit to doing, as well as our specific deliverables with regard to vaccines” would be revealed tomorrow at the Quad summit.

India said that it was ready to resume vaccine exports during the October quarter. It will prioritize the COVAX international vaccination initiative and neighbouring countries before any other vaccines. However, India also sought a waiver in intellectual property rights and greater access to raw materials.

According to the U.S., “Obviously, there’ve been problems in India throughout the summer.” “But…we believe that it’s important to fulfill the ambitions we set out at that moment.”

Kamala Harris (the U.S. vice president) met Modi Thursday to welcome India’s decision about resuming vaccine exports. Both countries need to work together in order to defend democracies.

Although the Quad’s members are involved in joint naval exercises, and the United States has expressed concern about China’s rising power and potential attempts to place pressure on the four other countries it serves, the U.S. is trying to downplay the Quad’s security component.

The senior U.S. official stated that “the Quad is an informal gathering” but that they were not a regional security organisation and that there was no connection to AUKUS.

China did not attempt to separate the two. They denounced both the Quad and AUKUS as Cold War structures, while claiming that AUKUS would increase the regional arms race.

Xi Jinping addressed the United Nations General Assembly, stating that there is a need “to reject the practice of forming smaller circles or zero sum games.”

U.S. officials claimed that Biden would like to meet Suga, even though the Japanese leader has announced his retirement. The two will discuss recent developments in Indo-Pacific and economics, as well as “where he sees Japan going” as Japan prepares for its leadership transition.

Biden stated that Suga was also interested in discussing “recent efforts of countries to potentially join CPTPP.” This refers to China who recently expressed its willingness to join the regional trading pact. It is currently the largest member, following the withdrawal by Donald Trump.