The Tamesis
The United States, India, Australia and Japan on Tuesday announced new projects in major mining cooperation.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended the meeting in New Delhi and after meeting with foreign ministers, he said the Quad was made up of countries that “share strong values - strong, vibrant democracies” and shared “many aligned interests.”
The Quad said in a joint statement that member countries will jointly mobilize $20 billion in government and private funds to strengthen critical mineral supply chains, including identifying projects in the four countries. It’s unclear whether this is entirely new funding.
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The plan comes 10 days after President Donald Trump made a goodwill state visit to China and spoke glowingly of the two countries working together as a “G2” — a concept wary of U.S. partners wary of Beijing’s rise that could shut them out.
The critical minerals mark a rare shift by the Trump administration toward more traditional diplomacy of networking with allies, alarmed by China’s dominance of core resources in high-end technology.
Trump has been dismissive of key allies, repeatedly saying they impose an unfair economic burden on the United States.
Trump has refused to commit to a Quad summit, although Rubio held two Quad leaders’ meetings last year, including one just an hour after taking office.
That’s in stark contrast to his predecessor, Joe Biden, who prioritized alliances and vowed that the Quad summit “is here to stay.”
Rubio said the Trump administration wants the Quad meetings to focus more on deliverables rather than meetings, and said progress in cooperation has been “pretty positive.”
Maritime cooperation is also a focus
The four countries also said they would collaborate on two maritime initiatives, one that would combine their surveillance capabilities and another that would provide enhanced real-time information on maritime commercial traffic.
Australian Foreign Minister Huang Yingxian first said that the four countries are cooperating to assist Fiji’s port development. Fiji is an important island country in the South Pacific, and China is jointly promoting Fiji to expand its influence.
“We recognize that we have an obligation, we have a responsibility to provide real options, especially as the strategic environment in our region is deteriorating,” Huang said.
In a statement, the Quad also set a goal to connect South Pacific islands via undersea cables by the end of the year, allowing them to become economically integrated with the four democracies rather than China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning responded to the meeting by saying that cooperation “should not be directed against any third party.”
“We also do not support exclusive factional or group confrontations,” she told reporters.
- Vishakha Saxena Additional Editor AFP
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