U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced several key new initiatives to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific alongside the foreign ministers of Australia, India and Japan in New Delhi, India this week. In a new maritime initiative, the four nations agreed to bolster shipping route security by leveraging and integrating their maritime surveillance capabilities through the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Corporation Initiative. The effort will help to aggregate unclassified maritime information. At the same time, the expansion of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative will provide real-time commercial maritime domain awareness data. These will help countries obtain a clear, close to real-time operating picture of affairs in the Indo-Pacific helping to quickly combat threats. Additionally, India has agreed to host the next Quad-at-Sea mission, which will integrate the work of the four coast guards.
“The reason why maritime security is so important, beyond the fact that current events remind us of what can happen when maritime security is impeded, is the fact that 60 percent – 60 percent – of global maritime trade passes through the Indo-Pacific,” noted Secretary Rubio.
Secretary Rubio also announced an agreement to partner on Port Infrastructure, beginning with a joint project in Fiji.
The group also launched the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative Framework. The agreement will help the partner countries’ leverage economic policy tools and coordinate investment to strengthen critical mineral supply chains.
Quad partners intend to mobilize up to $20 billion in government and private sector support through new and existing efforts to strengthen mining, processing and recycling of critical minerals. Separately, the U.S. signed a bilateral strategic agreement on the critical minerals and the rare earth supply chain with India. The agreement aims to lessen reliance on China for critical minerals.
“Vibrant innovation economies such as ours cannot afford to leave the foundational materials of these industries vulnerable to single-source monopolies that could deny us these things – not just in a time of conflict but as a leverage point contrary to our sovereign notional interests,” said Secretary Rubio.
Finally, The Quad Initiative on Indo-Pacific Energy Security will help strengthen regional energy resilience.
“Through this initiative, the partners will work to identify areas of cooperation in technology, in management and policy and international market analysis and emergency response exercises,” said Secretary Rubio, noting that the U.S. will host the Quad partners for a fuel security forum later this year.
“We are deeply committed to this partnership,” said Secretary Rubio. “It is a linchpin and a cornerstone of our global strategy as a nation in the United States.”
The U.S. looks forward to working with the Quad on these efforts and more in what Secretary Rubio called a “forum of action”.