The Quad nations have unveiled a series of new Indo-Pacific initiatives covering maritime surveillance, energy security, critical minerals and Pacific infrastructure, as regional tensions and economic uncertainty continue to shape strategic discussions among Australia, India, Japan and the United States.
Speaking after the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi, India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the four countries had focused heavily on maritime security, economic resilience and maintaining “safe and unimpeded maritime commerce”.
“We spent some time on the question of safe and unimpeded maritime commerce and reaffirmed the significance of scrupulously observing international law,” Jaishankar said.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Indo-Pacific was facing “acute economic stress” amid rising unpredictability and volatility, including the fallout from tensions around the Strait of Hormuz.
“We know the consequences for our region of the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz and what that means for our energy security, for our economies, and for our people,” Wong said.
Wong said Quad members were launching a new Indo-Pacific energy security initiative alongside expanded work on critical minerals and supply chain resilience.
“We understand that secure and reliable supply chains are a precondition to economic and strategic stability,” she said.
The ministers also announced the Quad Ports of the Future Partnership, beginning with a pilot port infrastructure project in Fiji. Wong described the initiative as “a practical demonstration of our collective ability to deliver high quality, resilient infrastructure in partnership with the region and in response to Pacific priorities.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Quad was increasingly becoming “a partnership of action” rather than simply a discussion forum.
Rubio announced the launch of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Corporation Initiative, aimed at improving maritime information sharing and surveillance coordination across the Indo-Pacific.
He also confirmed an expansion of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative, which will provide near real-time maritime tracking data to countries across the region.
“The reason why maritime security is so important… is the fact that 60 percent of global maritime trade passes through the Indo-Pacific,” Rubio said.
The Quad also announced a new Critical Minerals Framework designed to strengthen supply chains covering mining, processing and recycling of strategic minerals.
Wong said the maritime surveillance initiatives would support efforts to combat illegal fishing, trafficking and improve disaster response capabilities across the Indian Ocean and Pacific regions.
The Quad grouping, comprising Australia, India, Japan and the United States, has steadily expanded cooperation across maritime security, infrastructure, cyber security, energy resilience and critical technologies as competition intensifies across the Indo-Pacific.
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