Foreign ministers from Australia, India, Japan and the United States – a grouping known as the ‘Quad’ – met in Tokyo on Monday
Quad Foreign Ministers Meet In Tokyo
Foreign ministers from Australia, India, Japan and the United States – a grouping known as the ‘Quad’ – met in Tokyo on Monday for talks expected to focus on maritime security and initiatives to build up cyber defences. The talks attended by Australia’s Penny Wong, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Japan’s Yoko Kamikawa and Antony Blinken from the U.S., follow security discussions between Tokyo and Washington on Sunday where the allies labelled China the “greatest strategic challenge” facing the region.
The Quad on Monday agreed to expand a maritime domain awareness initiative to the Indian Ocean to bolster maritime security and counter illegal activities and finalised a response mechanism to enhance coordination for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR). A meeting of the Quad foreign ministers in Tokyo also decided to harness digital and emerging technologies to improve food security under the AI-Engage programme and to roll out Open RAN (open radio access network) telecommunications in the Pacific Ocean archipelago of Palau.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war and China’s aggressive actions in the East and South China Seas figured in the discussions between external affairs minister S Jaishankar, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong, Japan’s foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa and US secretary of state Antony Blinken. The Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA), which was launched by Quad in 2022 to combat illegal fishing and monitor “dark shipping”, will now be expanded to the Indian Ocean through the Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre in Gurugram.
In this context, the Quad foreign ministers pointed to the collaborative efforts that allowed them to provide assistance worth more than $5 million to Papua New Guinea following landslides in May this year. The joint statement welcomed progress in enhancing the resilience of semiconductor supply chains among Quad members & said the four countries will further deepen international cooperation on artificial intelligence systems and interoperability between artificial intelligence governance frameworks.
The U.S announced plans on Sunday for a major revamp of its military command in Japan to deepen coordination with its ally’s forces. Without directly naming China, the joint statement highlighted the fallout of Beijing’s assertive actions across the Indo-Pacific. It called for the peaceful settlement of disputes and prohibition on the use of force and said all countries seek a region where “no country dominates…, competition is managed responsibly, and each country is free from coercion in all its forms”.
