Washington, Oct 31 Quad foreign ministers on Saturday agreed to step up cooperation in sectors such as artificial intelligence, critical minerals, and maritime security, and announced setting up a business leaders’ forum to promote commercial deals in key sectors.
At their third meeting this year, the foreign ministers of India, the US, Japan and Australia expressed their intent to provide USD 85 million in technical assistance to expand access to trusted artificial intelligence across the Indo-Pacific. They also announced holding the first Sea Dragon 2027 maritime surveillance collaboration initiative for the region.
The Quad deliberations, hosted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Atlanta, were attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.
“The best way to make a forum useful and important is to make sure that it does something, not just talks about it but does it,” Rubio told reporters at a press conference. He was responding to a question about the Quad ministerial meeting.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the ministers said they were looking forward to the Quad Leaders’ Summit on the sidelines of the ASEAN-East Asia meetings in the Philippines in mid-November.
“I think hopefully when our leaders meet, in November, they will be able to announce some more concrete steps,” Rubio said.
In a joint statement, the Quad ministers announced the first-ever Quad Business Leaders’ Forum to foster greater ties across public and private sectors, including the promotion of commercial deals in key sectors.
They said the Quad export credit agencies will meet in Tokyo on November 18 to identify opportunities for practical cooperation, further demonstrating the commitment to deepening economic cooperation.
The ministers said the second Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer mission was successfully undertaken from September 25 to October 7 with representatives from all four countries aboard an Indian Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Vessel.
The joint statement hailed it as a significant step toward strengthening Quad maritime interoperability to address unlawful maritime activities.
The ministers also announced the first Quad Maritime Domain Awareness Track 1.5 Symposium under the Quad Maritime Training Initiative (MAITRI) in early 2027. The symposium will provide a platform for regional partners to discuss MDA approaches, technologies, and information sharing.
The ministers also said the Quad members were committed to identifying priority countries for cooperation on trusted advanced communication technologies, including 5G, 6G, Open Radio Access Networks (RAN), and AI RAN and developing a pipeline of trusted 5G projects, as well as exploring future cooperation on AI RAN.
The ministers also pledged to dismantle cyber scam operations that pose a threat to national and international peace and security.
The ministers also welcomed the US commitment to provide USD 10 million to promote infrastructure and facilities in India and ASEAN countries that recover critical minerals from waste.
They said the Quad countries have strengthened their cooperation on critical mineral supply chains, working together to recover critical minerals from electronics waste and scrap materials to reduce reliance on any single supplier.
(PTI News)
