Latest news with #QuadCancerMoonshot
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Reimagining Quad in the shadow of Trump
The first diplomatic engagement of the Trump Administration in January, soon after it settled in office, was to host the Quad foreign ministers in Washington D.C. The joint statement of the four maritime democracies (India, Japan, Australia and the US) committed to strengthening 'regional maritime, economic, and technology security in the region' as well as 'promoting reliable and resilient supply chains'. Regular meetings were promised in preparation of the Quad Leaders' Summit that India was to host in September. However, Quad foreign ministers meet today in Washington D.C. acutely aware that the sense of euphoria and continuity that distinguished the January 21 meeting has made way for uncertainty. The Quad Leaders' Summit has been postponed and questions loom over the bloc's future as the US under President Trump pursues its unilateral agendas on global trade, security, and economic development. The challenge before the leaders is to reaffirm the stated goals of the bloc, source funds and build capacities to deliver them. At a time when power blocs unravel and nations take refuge in bilateral arrangements to protect national interests, Quad must not lose sight of its long-term priorities. (PTI) Trump 2.0 has been relatively indifferent to multilateral blocs. The US pivot to bilateralism on issues as varied as trade and the climate crisis has influenced the Quad members to align agendas with the Trump administration's preferences. The 2024 Wilmington Declaration, for instance, stressed on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief as a Quad goal. With Washington curtailing its spending on global aid, the focus now is now exclusively on disaster relief. Similarly, the Quad Cancer Moonshot, which was to see a major Indian involvement, seems to be less of a priority now. Delhi's ongoing trade talks with Washington may even influence the scheduling of the Quad Leaders' summit. The considerations that led to the formation of Quad a decade ago remain. At a time when power blocs unravel and nations take refuge in bilateral arrangements to protect national interests, Quad must not lose sight of its long-term priorities, especially a free and open Indo-Pacific, commitment to a rules-based order, and trade. As for India, it is also an opportunity to firm up ties with Japan and Australia, especially in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor and the churn in the neighbourhood.
Hindustan Times
12-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Quad Leaders Summit likely to be held in November
The Quad Leaders Summit is expected to be held in November, with the four members of the grouping now focused on giving shape to an agenda to bolster economic security and maritime security, people familiar with the matter said. The Quad Leaders Summit, which will be hosted by India this year, was earlier expected to be held in September but scheduling and logistical issues have resulted in plans to hold the meet later in the year, the people familiar with planning for the meeting said on condition of anonymity. However, dates are yet to be finalised for the summit, they said. Some Quad members believed September wouldn't be ideal for holding the summit because the focus would be on the UN General Assembly in New York, and the people pointed out that Japan is set to hold elections for the upper chamber of the Diet or the Parliament in July, leaving little time for preparations for a summit. The summit will be preceded by a meeting of the foreign ministers of India, Australia, Japan and the US - the four members of Quad - that is set to be hosted by Washington either in late June or early July, the people said. As preparations have progressed for the summit, the four members of Quad have felt the need to make the agenda more focused so that the grouping can come up with concrete deliverables, the people said. 'There was a feeling that the Quad had spread itself too thin by taking on too many things. There is a need for a more focused agenda,' one of the people said. The focus in shaping the agenda for the Quad Leaders Summit will be on infrastructure and technology, which both dovetail into creating economic security, maritime security and maritime domain awareness, and disaster response, a second person said. The people also said some aspects of shaping the agenda were influenced by the imperatives of the Donald Trump administration in the US. 'The cancer moonshot, which was conceived at the behest of the Biden administration, doesn't appear to be a priority at the moment,' the second person said. The Quad Cancer Moonshot, a global offshoot of a US initiative, focused on reducing the burden of cancer in the Indo-Pacific region, starting with cervical cancer. 'The Quad partners are giving shape to efforts to offer technology and funding for infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific so that smaller countries in the region have more options,' a third person said. The four members of Quad have already done considerable work to bolster the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA), which was launched in 2022 to combat illegal fishing and counter 'dark shipping'. Last year, the Quad agreed to expand this initiative to the Indian Ocean through the Indian Navy's Information Fusion Centre in Gurugram. The initiative aims to improve real-time maritime monitoring, particularly the identifying and tracking of suspicious or unlawful activities such as 'dark shipping', whereby ships switch off their tracking systems. In addition to the maritime domain awareness initiative, the Quad recently launched the Indo-Pacific Logistics Network (IPLN), which enables the grouping to leverage shared logistics capabilities in the Indo-Pacific to support the response to natural disasters. The people said IPMDA and IPLN reflect the Quad's commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and highlight practical cooperation to address regional challenges. Counter-terrorism too is expected to figure in both the upcoming meeting of Quad foreign ministers and the summit, and India will expect support from the other members of the grouping for its new approach to counter cross-border terrorism backed by Pakistan, the people said.
Axios
19-05-2025
- Health
- Axios
What to know about Joe Biden's Cancer Moonshot
Former President Biden is being praised following his prostate cancer diagnosis for his efforts in spearheading Cancer Moonshot, an initiative that's designed to improve treatments and combat rates of the disease. The big picture: Former President Obama, who appointed Biden to lead the drive a year on from his son Beau Biden's 2015 death from brain cancer, said after it was announced that his VP has an aggressive for of cancer that's spread to his bones: "Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe." State of play: The Obama White House announced Cancer Moonshot in 2016 "to eliminate cancer as we know it" and kickstarted the national program with $1 billion in research funding. It became known as the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Biden relaunched Cancer Moonshot in 2022 with the goals of reducing the age-adjusted death rate from cancer by 50% over 25 years and "making a decade's worth of progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in five years," per a National Cancer Institute post. Tens of millions in funding has gone toward cancer programs since then, including $150 million last year to develop technologies that the Biden White House said would help with tumor-removal surgeries. Cancer Moonshot has "supported 250 research projects and more than 70 programs and consortia," according to a National Cancer Institute (NCI) post that was last updated in April. What he's saying: "After Beau died, I literally visited every major cancer research facility in the world — seven of them around the world. I wanted to see what was possible, and I did," then-President Biden said last September, according to recorded remarks of his speech before world leaders and scientists to announce the Quad Cancer Moonshot in his home state of Delaware. "They're making significant progress," Biden said after the Quad heads of state from the U.S., Australia, Japan and India committed to the drive. "And it's not just because it's personal — this —but it's because it's possible," he added. "Our goal is to team up, end cancer around the world, and start — starting with cervical cancer. I know it may sound unrealistic, but it's not." How it worked: "Funded through the 21st Century Cures Act, the Cancer Moonshot brought together patients, advocates, researchers, and clinicians dedicated to utilizing resources across the government, academia, and the private sector," per the NCI. Using a panel of experts' broad recommendations as a guide, NCI said it "identified goals that would reflect this guidance and accelerate discovery, increase collaboration, and expand data sharing across the cancer community." Among the accomplishments the NCI lists the Cancer Moonshot achieving are expanding prevention drives, developing "new enabling cancer technologies to characterize tumors and test therapies" and intensifying research into the leading causes of childhood cancers.
