Washington: The United States, India, Japan and Australia are moving beyond diplomatic consultations and launching practical initiatives on maritime security, infrastructure and regional resilience, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said, signalling a more action-oriented role for the Quad in the Indo-Pacific.
At a Congressional hearing Wednesday (local time), Rubio highlighted the growing importance of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, commonly known as the Quad, as a central pillar of the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
“The Quad, an important alliance in the Indo-Pacific between India, Japan, Australia,” Rubio said, adding that the grouping had already held multiple meetings and was preparing for additional high-level engagements later this year.
Rubio noted that he recently participated in a Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in India and said the four countries were now focused on implementing concrete projects rather than limiting cooperation to diplomatic discussions.
“The other reason I was there was in addition to the bilateral meetings, we were able to host a meeting once again of the foreign ministers of the Quad,” Rubio told lawmakers.
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“There are a number of things we’re working on, and now we have actionable items that we’re beginning to focus on,” he said.
Among the initiatives under discussion is a new maritime domain awareness effort designed to strengthen monitoring of activities across the Indo-Pacific.
Rubio said the four countries were working together and “pooling our resources” to improve awareness of developments at sea, including potential threats to shipping routes and critical infrastructure.
“One of the things we’ve agreed to work on is domain awareness, working together and pooling our resources so that we can have domain awareness about what’s happening out in the sea,” Rubio said.
The initiative would help identify suspicious maritime activity, sanctions evasion, threats to undersea communications networks and other security challenges across the region.
“If we can pool the resources of these four countries, it would be a benefit to the region writ large,” he said.
Rubio also revealed that Quad members were discussing infrastructure projects in the Pacific Islands region.
“There’ll be a new port facility in the region that we’re going to work together on for one of the small Pacific islands,” he said, later indicating discussions were under way with Fiji.
The Secretary suggested that the next phase of Quad cooperation would increasingly focus on practical deliverables aimed at strengthening regional resilience and reducing strategic vulnerabilities.
Asked about future meetings, Rubio said the administration hopes to convene a Quad leaders’ summit before the end of the year.
“We’re hoping to be able to do one this year,” he said.
The Quad has emerged as one of the most significant strategic groupings in the Indo-Pacific, bringing together four major democracies that share concerns about regional security, supply chains, maritime stability and the growing influence of China.
