The US, India, Australia and Japan yesterday announced new maritime and critical minerals cooperation, reviving a forum viewed suspiciously by China following questions over the US’ commitment and disagreement on Iran.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio took part in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) meeting in New Delhi, 10 days after US President Donald Trump paid a friendly state visit to China and spoke glowingly of the two powers working together as a “G2” — a concept that the US’ partners, which view Beijing’s rise warily, fear could shut them out.
Meeting his counterparts in India, Rubio said the Quad comprised countries “who share strong values — strong, vibrant democracies — who also are committed to many of the same concepts with regards to economic development and have many aligned interests.”
Photo: Reuters
Rubio said the four powers would work together on two maritime initiatives — one that combines their surveillance capabilities, and another that would provide enhanced real-time information to commercial traffic at sea.
In a first, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) said that the Quad was cooperating on assisting port development in Fiji — a key island nation in the South Pacific, where China has made a concerted push for greater influence.
“We recognize our obligation — our responsibility — to provide real choices, particularly as strategic circumstances in our region are deteriorating,” Wong said.
Rubio said the Quad would also step up four-way efforts to secure the supply of critical minerals, a rare area in which the Trump administration has turned to the more traditional diplomacy of building networks with allies, alarmed at the dominance of China in resources key to the high-end technology sector.
Reacting to the meeting, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) said that cooperation “should not be directed against any third party.”
“We also do not support exclusive cliques or bloc confrontations,” she told reporters.
Trump has repeatedly been dismissive of major allies, saying they unfairly burden the US financially.
While Rubio held two Quad meetings last year, including one hours after taking office, Trump declined to commit to a four-way leaders’ summit.
It marked a strong contrast to his predecessor, former US president Joe Biden, who put a top priority on alliances and vowed that Quad summits were “here to stay.”
Rubio said the Trump administration wanted the Quad to focus more on deliverables than meetings, and said cooperation was progressing “pretty aggressively.”
Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the focus of the talks would be “the Indo-Pacific, which is the specific limit of the Quad.”
India has differed with the other Quad nations on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by refusing to sever its long-standing relationship with Moscow.
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