Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the Quad is stepping up support for the Pacific and Indo-Pacific region as worsening global instability, energy insecurity and economic volatility place growing pressure on countries across the region.
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) is an informal strategic forum comprising the United States, India, Australia, and Japan.
Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi following the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Wong announced what she described as “the strongest ever commitment from the Quad to the Pacific” through a new port infrastructure initiative in Fiji.
“The Quad is today taking forward a number of new initiatives, an energy security initiative, and, of course, our continued work on critical minerals, because we understand that secure and reliable supply chains are a precondition to economic and strategic stability,” Wong said.
“We are also today announcing the strongest ever commitment from the Quad to the Pacific through the Quad Ports of the Future Partnership, where we are launching a pilot for port infrastructure in Fiji,” she said.
Wong said she had recently visited Fiji and understood “how important this will be to that country”.
“It’s a practical demonstration of our collective ability to deliver high quality, resilient infrastructure in partnership with the region and in response to Pacific priorities,” she said.
Wong thanked Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar for hosting the meeting and acknowledged Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi and U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“This is the third Quad meeting we have had since Secretary Rubio took office, and we thank him for his leadership,” Wong said.
She said Quad members recognised “our obligation, our responsibility to provide real choices, particularly as strategic circumstances in our region are deteriorating”.
“The region is facing acute economic stress. We know the world is more unpredictable. We know economic volatility is increasing,” Wong said.
She also raised concerns over the impact of Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“We know the consequences for our region of the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz and what that means for our energy security, for our economies, and for our people,” she said.
Wong said Australia supported diplomatic efforts to restore freedom of navigation and energy flows.
“We recognise the efforts of Secretary Rubio towards a diplomatic resolution to ensure freedom of navigation is restored and crucial energy supplies flow,” she said.
The Quad also announced expanded maritime surveillance cooperation across the Indo-Pacific.
Wong said the group would coordinate maritime surveillance efforts “initially in the Indian Ocean and at Exercise Malabar through the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration Initiative”.
She added the Quad was expanding its maritime domain awareness initiative to the Indian Ocean to provide “near real-time unclassified satellite tracking data to combat illegal fishing, trafficking and also enable us to better support humanitarian disaster response”.
Wong also highlighted progress on undersea cable projects across the Pacific.
“We are delivering as a collective undersea cables to all Pacific Island Forum countries, which enhances economic opportunities,” she said.
She said the Quad was also working to strengthen cooperation against scam centres in Southeast Asia, boost law enforcement capacity and deepen cyber cooperation.
“These are just some of the measures, practical measures, our countries are engaged in,” Wong said.
“We know we are stronger when we work together. We know we work better in partnership across our region and we work best by listening to the priorities of our region and delivering practical outcomes to make a difference to our people’s lives,” she said.
