On March 12, 2021, the leaders of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States convened the first-ever Quad Leaders’ Summit in a virtual format and announced the creation of a Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group. The joint statement, titled “The Spirit of the Quad,” declared that the four nations would “begin cooperation on the critical technologies of the future to ensure that innovation is consistent with a free, open, inclusive, and resilient Indo-Pacific.”
According to the accompanying fact sheet, the working group was organized around four efforts: technical standards, 5G diversification and deployment, horizon-scanning of critical and emerging technologies including biotechnology, and dialogues on critical technology supply chains. Quantum technologies fell within the working group’s scope as one of several emerging fields to be monitored.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and U.S. President Joe Biden participated in the summit. The creation of the working group marked the Quad’s first institutional mechanism for coordinating policy on critical technologies, including quantum information science, among its member states.