"Countries that are about a 3rd of world's GDP": Rubio announces QUAD initiatives on maritime security, ports, critical minerals

Addressing a press joint statement, Rubio said, "The stage today represented countries that collectively are about a third of the world's GDP, over almost 2 billion people, and not these aren't just countries that have economic reach, a third of the world's being 2 billion people, they are countries who 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."

Highlighting key outcomes from the meeting, Rubio announced a new Indo-Pacific maritime initiative aimed at enhancing regional surveillance coordination among Quad members.

"I'm very happy today that as a result of the work that our teams have been doing leading up to this conversation, we have real concrete achievables that we can announce to our respective countries and to the world. On the issue of maritime security, there are two big announcements. The first is the launch of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Cooperation Initiative, which is going to leverage each of our country's maritime surveillance capabilities in the Indo-Pacific to enhance information sharing. Related to that is also the expansion of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative, which provides and can provide near-real-time commercial maritime domain awareness data to countries throughout the Indo-Pacific," he said.

Rubio also announced a partnership focused on improving port infrastructure in Pacific Island nations, with an initial focus on Fiji.

"I also want to thank India for committing to hosting the next iteration of the Quad at Sea mission, which brings together our respective coast guards together in one place on one ship. 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% of global maritime trade passes through the Indo-Pacific, and it's a vital national interest not just to the four countries represented here today, but to dozens of countries, countless countries around the world. The second initiative: we're going to be partnering on issues of port infrastructure. In particular, in response to insufficient port capacity in the Pacific Islands. We're announcing plans to work with Fiji to advance that country's port infrastructure. It'll be the first time that the Quad partners work together on a port infrastructure project," Rubio said.

On supply chain resilience, Rubio said the Quad nations would launch a new framework focused on securing access to critical minerals.

"The third topic, which we hear a lot about these days, that we'll have some deliverables on today, is the issue of critical minerals," Rubio said.

He added, "We'll announce the Quad Critical Minerals Framework, which will guide each of us to leverage economic policy tools and coordinate investment to strengthen critical mineral supply chains, including in mining and processing, and in critical minerals recycling."

Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Quad grouping is evolving from a discussion platform into an action-oriented strategic partnership, emphasising cooperation on security, energy, humanitarian response, and supply chains.

In his opening remarks in New Delhi, Rubio thanked External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and the Indian government for hosting the gathering, describing the meeting as taking place at "an important time."

The US Secretary of State noted that his first meeting after being sworn into office was with the Quad, saying it reflected Washington's commitment to the grouping. "It was our goal as I began as Secretary of State, and as has been pointed out earlier, my first meeting as a Secretary of State was the Quad, literally within minutes of being sworn in. And I thought that demonstrated our commitment to this process," Rubio said.

Rubio stressed that the Quad's collective objective over the past year has been to move beyond dialogue and toward practical cooperation. "But our goal collectively over the last year has been to turn this from a forum in which we meet and talk about problems to one where we actually do something about it," he stated.

"I think we can report to our peoples respectively that we are beginning to do that pretty aggressively and pretty impressively on many areas of cooperation," he added.

According to Rubio, recent global developments have made the Quad's agenda even more significant and relevant. "And it's also interesting that on the areas that we are working together on have become even more relevant and more important because of recent events around the world," he said.

Rubio also expressed confidence that the Quad would continue building momentum as a "gathering of strategic allies."US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived at the Delhi Airport on Tuesday to attend the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting. He was also accompanied by the US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor.

Earlier on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio landed in Jaipur and visited the historic Amer Fort with his wife Jeanette Rubio and US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor.

Rubio is presently on a four-day official visit to India. The high-profile trip is aimed at recalibrating bilateral ties, which have faced certain headwinds since mid-last year. (ANI)