At the first summit of the leaders of the Quadrilateral grouping, a Quad vaccine initiative was announced Friday in which India will manufacture American vaccines with Japanese funding and Australian logistical support for countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

These were among the concrete outcomes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Japan PM –1--and Australian PM Scott Morrison met via virtual mode for the first summit of the grouping.

 ‘The Quad Vaccine Partnership: A factsheet’ issued after the summit stated: “While ensuring that vaccines have been made available to our people, “Quad” partners will launch a landmark partnership to further accelerate the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Together, Quad leaders are taking shared action necessary to expand safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing in 2021, and will work together to strengthen and assist countries in the Indo-Pacific with vaccination, in close coordination with the existing relevant multilateral mechanisms including WHO and COVAX.”

It said the US will work with Biological E Ltd to finance increased capacity to support Biological E’s effort to produce at least 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2022 with Stringent Regulatory Author­ization and/or World Health Organization Emergency Use Listing (EUL), including the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.