Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared a "new dawn" in the Indo-Pacific after meeting with the leaders of 'the Quad' for the first time.
The Quad, which includes the United States, India, Australia and Japan, want to expand global vaccinations and counter China's growing vaccination diplomacy in Southeast Asia and around the world.
The meeting overnight has been held at foreign minister level since 2007 but the virtual summit was the first at leadership level.
In his opening remarks at the historic virtual meeting, Mr Morrison said the gathering marked a "new dawn" in the region.
"As four leaders of great liberal democracies in the Indo-Pacific, let our partnership be the enabler of peace, stability and prosperity and to do so inclusively with the many nations of our region," he said.
Mr Morrison stressed the need to work together as the region grapples with the effects of the pandemic, in order to avoid history repeating itself.
"When the world emerged from the Great War and our last global pandemic a century ago, it soon found a great depression and another global conflict, and it unleashed a poverty and a devastation that was unthinkable," he said.
"As we emerge from this global pandemic, and the global recession, let us together create a different future."
The leaders during the meeting agreed to pool financing, manufacturing and distribution capacity to send one billion coronavirus vaccines across Asia by the end of 2022, India's foreign secretary says.
Scott Morrison stressed the need to work together. Source: Yomiuri Shimbun
"We believe this will speed up the process of post-pandemic recovery and enable families and businesses to put the COVID-19 crisis behind them," Harsh Vardhan Shringla said after the summit.
India - the world's biggest vaccine maker - will use its manufacturing capacity to make US vaccines, with financing coming from the US International Development Finance Corporation and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
Australia will finance training and provide last-mile logistical support for the distribution of vaccines that will predominantly go to the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia and countries in the Indian Ocean.
The announcement comes as the COVAX Facility, a global vaccine sharing initiative to which Australia contributes, has begun delivering doses in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
Fiji, Cambodia, Indonesia and Philippines have so far received vaccines, with other eligible countries expected to have initial doses by April.
The Quad meeting also agreed to set up a group of experts to help distribute vaccines as well as working groups for co-operation on climate change, technology standards and joint development of emerging technologies.
"We strive for a region that is free, open, inclusive, healthy, anchored by democratic values and unconstrained by coercion," read the statement from the countries, a grouping seen as formed to counter China's growing influence in Asia and beyond.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the Quad partners had common interests and concerns about China, and that the US would raise Quad partner's concerns with China next week.
"This is our effort to communicate clearly to the Chinese government how the United States intends to proceed at a strategic level, what we believe our fundamental interests and values are, and what our concerns with their activities are, whether it’s on Hong Kong, or Xinjiang, or in the Taiwan Strait," he said.
"Or the issues that we heard today from our Quad partners: their coercion of Australia, their harassment around the Senkaku Islands, their aggression on the border with India," he added.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden said a free and open Indo-Pacific region was crucial to all four countries.
"The United States is committed to working with you, our partners, and all our allies in the region, to achieve stability," Biden told the meeting from the White House.
Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi told the session the Quad had "come of age" and would remain an important pillar of stability in the region.
The four leaders agreed to hold an in-person meeting later this year.
