NEW DELHI: The US, India, Japan and Australia launched on Tuesday a maritime surveillance initiative for the Indo-Pacific region and a series of new collaborations, as their foreign ministers gathered in New Delhi.
The meeting took place among members of the four-state strategic security alliance known as the Quad, which was established in 2007 to counter the increased regional economic and military influence of China in Asia. Together, the bloc makes up about a third of the world’s gross domestic product and nearly 2 billion people.
Under the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration, the four countries will integrate their surveillance capabilities and strengthen information sharing across the region, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a joint press conference.
“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 of global maritime trade passes through the Indo-Pacific,” he told reporters.
“It’s a vital national interest, not just to the four countries represented here today, but to dozens and dozens of countries, countless countries around the world.”
The US, India, Japan and Australia also agreed to expand their cooperation on maritime domain awareness, which will provide real-time data on ship movements, including commercial ships.
The bloc announced plans to deepen cooperation on critical minerals and energy, as well as a joint port infrastructure project in Fiji, which will be their first in the region.
“We are beginning to show real achievements and real accomplishments. We are deeply committed to this partnership. It is a linchpin and a cornerstone of our global strategy as a nation in the United States,” Rubio said.
As the Quad foreign ministers met after the high-profile summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, it signals that Washington “wants to use the Quad as a tool in its broader ‘constructive strategic competition’ with China,” said Vanshika Saraf, a research analyst with the geostrategy program at the Takshashila Institution.
The new and expanded collaborations also allow the countries to understand China’s long-range naval ambitions and movements across the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific, while also protecting underwater data cables and monitoring regional ports.
“Quad’s revival shows that the US is not withdrawing from Indo-Pacific competition despite being focused on the war in West Asia, domestic political volatility and trade disputes,” she told Arab News.
The Delhi meeting also comes as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed following the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, effectively grinding the shipment of global energy supplies to a halt. Its outcomes appear as an effort to create a unified network to make the Indo-Pacific more transparent.
“Historically, nations tracked the seas independently, leaving large blind spots,” Saraf said.
“Given the vulnerability of maritime chokepoints as revealed during the West Asian War, tracking vessel transit logs through the Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok straits would be of vital interest.”
