WASHINGTON (Kyodo) — The top diplomats of Japan, the United States, Australia and India agreed Tuesday to launch an initiative aimed at bolstering cooperation on critical minerals, at a time when China is the dominant player in the global supply of rare earth elements vital for modern technologies.
Following a meeting of the so-called Quad grouping in Washington, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters that officials of the four countries will put flesh on the bones of the new project in the coming months before a summit of their leaders in New Delhi this fall.
“We are deeply concerned about the abrupt constriction and future reliability of key supply chains, specifically for critical minerals,” Iwaya, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a joint statement.
After a similar agreement reached by the leaders of the Group of Seven major democracies last month, the Quad foreign chiefs highlighted the importance of diversified and reliable global supply chains.
With China in mind, they said, “Reliance on any one country for processing and refining critical minerals and derivative goods production exposes our industries to economic coercion, price manipulation and supply chain disruptions, which further harms our economic and national security.”
Calling Japan, Australia and India “very important strategic partners” of the United States in ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific, Rubio said during the meeting that the four have “a lot of shared priorities.”
Rubio said many other countries will also benefit from the Quad’s increased cooperation as “not simply a security matter” but also in terms of “economic development” in many cases.
While the Quad is not a security alliance, it is viewed as a counterweight to China’s growing influence in the region, with its rapidly expanding areas of cooperation ranging from maritime security and infrastructure to health protection and emerging technologies.
Noting that the Indo-Pacific is the growth engine of the global economy and accounts for more than half of the world’s population, Iwaya said peace and stability in the region is “essential for the prosperity of the international community.”
Among many other issues, Iwaya, Rubio, Wong and Jaishankar, who last met together a day after Donald Trump began his second presidential term in January, reaffirmed their “strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion,” including in the South and East China seas.
They also condemned North Korea’s launches using ballistic missile technology and its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The birth of the group dates back to the countries’ coordinated emergency response and humanitarian aid following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.
The Quad was elevated to the foreign ministerial level in 2019, during Trump’s first presidency, before being boosted to the leadership level in 2021 under his successor Joe Biden.
Despite Trump’s skepticism about tackling global and regional challenges multilaterally, he has consistently placed great importance on the Quad framework, and it is likely that his first trip to Asia during his second term will coincide with this year’s four-way summit.
“I think we were able to demonstrate to the international community the strength and importance of the Quad’s solidarity by holding another face-to-face meeting in about six months,” Iwaya said following the meeting on Tuesday.
Iwaya said he also held talks with Rubio, Wong and Jaishankar separately, and agreed with them to advance bilateral cooperation on security and many other issues.
(By Takuya Karube)
Japan, US, Australia, India to bolster critical mineral cooperation
