New Delhi: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has emphasised the economic and strategic importance of the Quad, stating that the member states, which are "vibrant democracies", represent a third of the world's GDP and share strong values.
Addressing a joint press statement, along with Foreign Ministers of India, Australia and Japan, Rubio announced Quad initiatives on maritime security, port infrastructure and energy security.
He said, "To Ministers Jaishankar, Wong, and Motegi, thank you for this very productive discussion and the work that our teams have been doing leading up to this, as we continue to build out this partnership into something that is a partnership of action."
"On the stage today are represented countries that collectively are about a third of the world's GDP, and almost 2 billion people. And these aren't just countries that have economic reach, a third of the world's GDP, 2 billion people, but countries that share strong values, strong, vibrant democracies, who also are committed to many of the same concepts with regards to economic development and have many aligned interests in those fields as well."
"Sixteen months ago when I became Secretary of State and we began our conversations, we all agreed that we wanted this gathering, this partnership, to be more than just a place where we got together every now and then and discussed the problems of the world that we held in common," he said, adding that the goal is to turn the Quad in a "place of action".
Rubio announced the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Cooperation initiative and the expansion of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness initiative. He thanked India for committing to hosting the next iteration of the Quad at Sea mission.
India, US ink pact on critical mineralsNew Delhi: India and the US have signed a strategic agreement to deepen cooperation in critical minerals and rare earths which constitute key materials for making semiconductors, electric vehicles, solar panels and high-tech defence products. The pact comes in the backdrop of growing global concerns on China’s dominance over these critical inputs which gives the communist giant the power to disrupt global supply chains. The agreement was signed during the Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting here, in the presence of External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Rubio pointed out that the agreement has been signed because India and the US “have a strategic and shared interest in the fact that vibrant innovation economies such as ours cannot afford to leave the foundational materials of these industries vulnerable to single source monopolies that could deny us these things, not just in a time of conflict, but as a leverage point contrary to our sovereign national interests." |
