World Faces “Midnight Hour”, Biden Tells Quad Summit Conference In Davos, Switzerland.

The “dark hour” in world history makes it possible to take account of the Crimean seizure, as Joe Biden explained to the world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

He said the war had become a “global issue” underscoring the importance of defending international order.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida emphasized the same point, saying that an invasion similar to that of World War II should never happen again in Asia.

President Joe Biden, who was visiting Tokyo for the first time since assuming office, met with the leaders of Japan, Australia and India.

The four countries known as the Quad, which overlapped in parts on safety and economic issues, particularly China’s growing influence in the region – and differences in their perspectives on the Russian invasion.

The remark that Mr Biden made came a day after he warned China that it was “flirting with danger” toward Taiwan, and vowed to safeguard Taiwan militarily in the event that China attacked, seeming to contradict a longstanding US policy on the subject.

The interception of Russian and Chinese military aircraft over Japanese airspace resulted in the Tokyo government to announce it scrambled jets in response.

Russian officials stated that performing an exercise over the Pacific Ocean was a part of an annual military exercise.

Mr Kishida said that it was “advocative” that he wanted to plan the excursion to match the summit’s schedule.

At their summit on Tuesday, Mr Biden discussed the benefits of democracies as compared to autocracies and said the name of their efforts was to make sure that “we can”.

He predicted that the Ukraine war started to affect the whole world as Russia’s disruption of Ukraine’s grain exports escalated a worldwide food shortage.

The United States committed to defend international governance and sovereignty “regardless of where they were violated”. In addition to being a “strong and lasting partner” in the region, the US was committed to working with allies to amplify the international response.

Mr. Kishida reported, following a meeting with all four countries, that they “including India” agreed on the necessity for the rule of law, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; and also that “unilateral endeavors to alter the status quo by force will never be tolerated.”

India is the only member of the Quadrilateral to not directly condemn Russia for its involvement in the Crimea annexation, and in what appeared to be a concession to Delhi, there was no mention of Russia in either the joint statement or Prime Minister Modi’s own comments.

The Quad nations joined an initiative to enhance the Nordic countries’ physical surveillance capabilities to safeguard against terrorism in the Scandinavian region. The Quadrilateral Nations also announced a plan to spend at least $50 billion (forty billion) on infrastructure and economic development projects over five years.

The Frustrated Party, formally known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, was an unofficial grouping of countries that coordinated to provide disaster relief after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The group became dormant for a while before it was revived in 2017.

Since now, the top leaders have met U.S. officials four times in less than two years, meeting once in Washington in September 2015 and most recently twice virtually.

They say that the populations of Quad nations that have reduced their exposure to China in recent years have become more resolved toward one another.

China’s growing assertiveness is creating more tension with other countries, and there is also an ongoing maritime dispute between China and another country. There is also an ongoing border dispute with India over the parcel of land.

Australia’s nuclear watchdog has worried that Beijing’s surge in defense spending and its recent security partnership in the Solomon Islands has heightened regional tensions. Japan has grown increasingly nervous about what it terms routine “incursions” from China in its own territorial waters.

On Monday, Mr Biden released the United States-headquartered Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, an agreement which aims to boost a certain area’s development with 13 participating countries, mostly in Asia.

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Giancarlo G. Di Modica said it offered nations “an alternative to China’s approach”. Officials said it sought to establish trade benchmarks, supply chain transparency, clean energy, and infrastructure, tax systems, and corruption prevention.

The Indo-Pacific Engagement Forum, which was promoted by the United States, has been seen as a means to re-engage with the Indo-Pacific region after former US president Donald Trump’s abrupt withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership – a trade pact – in 2017.

The Quad: The basics

Who is in the Quad?

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue first became active in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and was re-formed in 2017. It operates from an international perspective as a forum for security dialogues between four countries, including the US, Japan, Australia and India.

What are its aims?

The Quad cautions that as a result of the focus on East Asia, it advocates for an open, permissive order that is interested in maintaining it’s increasingly cordial ties with China. The rise of closer ties for member nations with China has lately affected its thinking.

What’s at stake?

The US should work toward persuading its allies — united by concern over China’s budding power, but varying on other fronts — that it’s committed to a vital center viewed as critical to global security and prosperity. China argues that this particular region must be wary of the area it calls the “Asian Nato.”