Josh Rubin, National Security Council Director for Indo-Pacific Affairs
Camille P. Dawson, Deputy Assistant SecretaryBureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Nancy Izzo Jackson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for IndiaBureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
MODERATOR: Greetings from the U.S. Department of State’s Asia Pacific Media Hub. I would like to welcome journalists to today’s on-the-record briefing with National Security Council Director for Indo-Pacific Affairs Josh Rubin, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Camille P. Dawson, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Nancy Izzo Jackson. Together they will provide a readout of the Quad Leaders’ Summit that took place in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, September 21st, and discuss the Quad’s role in bolstering the strategic convergence among our countries, advancing our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and delivering concrete benefits for partners in the Indo-Pacific in key areas.
With that, let’s get started. A huge thanks to our speakers for joining us. Director Rubin, I’ll turn it over to you for your opening remarks.
MR RUBIN: Great, thanks so much, and thanks to all of you for joining. On Saturday, President Biden hosted the fourth in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit in Wilmington, Delaware, the first time President Biden has hosted foreign leaders in his hometown as President. He welcomed Prime Minister Albanese, Prime Minister Kishida, and Prime Minister Modi into his home for bilateral discussions, and then also hosted a wide-ranging Quad Summit and leaders’ dinner at Archmere Academy.
Four years after elevating the Quad to the leader level, this weekend summit showed that the Quad is more strategically aligned than ever before, the Quad is delivering real, positive impact for the Indo-Pacific region, and the Quad is here to stay.
As this year’s joint leaders’ statement, the Wilmington Declaration, makes clear, the United States, Australia, India, and Japan unequivocally stand for the maintenance of peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region and share a vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific. The leaders reaffirmed that the Quad will continue to deliver for partners in the region in the areas they identify as priorities, and the leaders reiterated that the Quad will continue to support and complement the work of regional institutions, including ASEAN, the Pacific Islands Forum, and the Indian Ocean Rim Association. Quad leaders spoke with one voice about our shared concern over recent developments in the region that undermine a free and open Indo-Pacific, including in the maritime domain.
Every month, every year that passes, the Quad’s strategic alignment grows. This year’s Quad Summit also yielded some major new announcements that reflect the Quad’s positive agenda for the Indo-Pacific region.
First and foremost, the Quad Cancer Moonshot – a historic collaboration that mobilizes commitments from the Quad countries and major foundations and companies to collectively invest over $150 million and allocate up to 40 million vaccine doses to prevent, treat, and screen for cervical cancer in the Indo-Pacific region. At the Quad Summit’s marquee side event, each Quad leader announced major new commitments to help end cancer as we know it in the Indo-Pacific region. Altogether, scientific experts assessed that the Quad Cancer Moonshot will save hundreds of thousands of lives over the coming decades.
The Quad also unveiled important new initiatives to support maritime security in the Indo-Pacific. These include providing new technology and new training to over two dozen partners to help them identify and monitor dark vessels in their exclusive economic zones. The Quad will also launch the first-ever coast guard cooperation, which will feature members of the Australian, Indian, and Japanese coast guards on board a U.S. Coast Guard vessel next year and continuing on a rotational basis as appropriate.
The Quad leaders announced new critical and emerging technology projects, trusted telecommunications investments in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, and new efforts to invest in, repair, and secure undersea cables in the region.
Twenty years ago, in 2004, the Quad first came together to respond to the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and earlier this year the Quad stood with the people of Papua New Guinea after the tragic landslide there, investing over $5 million of support. This weekend Quad leaders announced over $4 million in support to the people of Vietnam following Typhoon Yagi to support recovery efforts there and in the region.
The Quad also announced the forward positioning of essential relief supplies across the Indo-Pacific to ensure that we are able to respond quickly and efficiently in the event of future natural disasters.
Finally, the Quad leaders closed the summit and the Wilmington Declaration by reaffirming that the Quad is here to stay. Over the past four years, Quad cooperation has grown roots across each of our governments at every level and across agencies. From annual leader-level meetings, biannual foreign ministers meetings that began in 2019, and over a dozen Quad working groups that meet regularly in person and virtually, the Quad is cooperating and delivering at an unprecedented pace and scale.
This weekend the leaders announced that all of our counties have committed to work through our respective budgetary processes to secure robust funding for Quad priorities. The leaders also announced that our commerce and industry ministers will meet for the first time in the months ahead.
Here in the United States, the Quad enjoys broad bipartisan support. The last U.S. administration elevated the Quad to the foreign ministers level before President Biden elevated it further to the leader level in 2021. In the days leading up to this year’s summit, members of Congress announced a bipartisan, bicameral Quad Caucus to continue to support the Quad’s efforts going forward, and Quad leaders announced and agreed that next year’s Quad Leaders Summit will take place in India.
Altogether, the Quad has a burst of momentum heading into 2025 and will be an enduring part of the Indo-Pacific regional architecture.
I’ll turn it over to Camille next and then look forward to your questions.
MS DAWSON: Thank you, Josh, and it’s really great to be speaking with everyone today on the heels of what was a very successful Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington, Delaware. As Josh mentioned, this was President Biden’s first time hosting foreign leaders in Wilmington as President, and that’s a reflection of his deep personal relationships with each of the Quad leaders as well as a reflection of the importance of the Quad to all of our countries.
I am excited to discuss some additional key deliverables from the meeting. I expect that you’ve all read the joint statement and seen the fact sheets, and you know that leaders announced many things that the Quad is doing to deliver concrete benefits for the region, and that they discussed our shared vision for a free, open, prosperous, secure, and resilient Indo-Pacific.
These accomplishments and the commitments that were announced range from fighting cancer, strengthening health security, addressing climate change, investing in critical and emerging technologies, advancing regional connectivity and infrastructure, to supporting maritime security for the Indo-Pacific.
So I’d like to highlight a few examples that show how the Quad has delivered real, tangible public goods for the people of the region, and then I’ll turn it over to Nancy to offer additional comments.
Adding to Josh’s initial remarks about the Quad Cancer Moonshot, this landmark initiative will serve to strengthen the overall cancer care ecosystem in the Indo-Pacific by improving health infrastructure, expanding research collaborations, building data systems, and providing greater support for cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and care. The United States will support HPV vaccine expert exchanges with Pacific Islands partners and boost HPV vaccination programs, including through an unprecedented pledge of $1.58 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation will look to support eligible private sector-driven projects to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer, including cervical cancer.
Then, building off our announcement earlier this year that the Quad is bringing Open RAN communications technology to Palau, we are also expanding on this model through Open RAN expansion to the Philippines, and we look forward to introducing Open RAN to additional countries across the Indo-Pacific in the future.
The Quad is also excited to announce its Ports of the Future Partnership, where we intend to coordinate, leverage resources, and share best practices with partners in the region to support quality port infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific region. Our first deliverable with this initiative will be an inaugural regional ports and transportation conference that will be hosted by India.
These are just some of the slate of new initiatives that the Quad announced at the summit. Of course, you can read about the many other deliverables in the summit fact sheet that was released by the White House, and I hope that you will do that.
And I will now turn the time over to Deputy Assistant Secretary Nancy Jackson.
MS JACKSON: Thank you so much, Camille, and thank you, everyone, for being with us this evening, this morning. I’d just like to reiterate a few points. One, and first and foremost, is that this summit really shows the Quad is more aligned and more integrated and more rooted in the region than ever before. This was the sixth time that Quad leaders have met and the fourth time in person since the Quad was elevated to the leaders level in 2021, as Josh mentioned. And since 2019, our Quad foreign ministers have met eight times, including most recently in Tokyo in July.
Our governments are working together at unprecedented scope and scale to deliver for the region. And in addition to the comments that DAS Dawson made, I’d like to focus my remarks on how the Quad partners have deepened their collaboration in logistics and the maritime space, expanding or providing new maritime security public goods to the region.
So two examples really illustrate this progress. First, the leaders – this leaders summit launched the Indo-Pacific Logistics Network pilot project, with a focus on supporting civilian response to natural disasters more rapidly and efficiently across the Indo-Pacific region through shared airlift capacity among the four nations.
Second, our Quad Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Doman Awareness initiative, or IPMDA, continues to expand and will now extend to the Indian Ocean region through the Indian Ocean Region Fusion Center hosted by India. We are also proud to announce a new regional Maritime Initiative for Training in the Indo-Pacific, or MAITRI, with an inaugural symposium in 2025 that will be hosted by India. This will enable our Indo-Pacific partners to maximize tools being provided through IPMDA and other Quad partner initiatives to monitor and secure their waters, enforce their laws, and deter unlawful behavior.
And then I’d also like to re-emphasize how over the past four years, the Quad has really become an enduring partnership. Quad ambassadors meet across the region, and indeed across the world, to exchange ideas and advance our shared priorities. Our Quad commerce and industry ministers will meet for the first time in the coming months, as well as leaders from our development finance institutions. And as Josh mentioned, our Congress just announced the creation of a Quad Caucus dedicated to supporting the Quad and the Indo-Pacific.
Most importantly, each of our leaders is committed to working through our respective budget processes to secure robust funding for the Quad’s priorities in the Indo-Pacific.
Ultimately, all of this cooperation is meant to benefit the people in the region with whom we share a vision of prosperity and stability. So thank you for taking the time to join us on this call today, and I look forward to your questions.
MODERATOR: Thank you. We will now turn to the question-and-answer portion of today’s briefing.
Our first question came in in advance from Will Ripley at CNN, based in Taipei: “What is President Biden telling the Quad about where U.S. foreign policy is headed when he leaves office? And is there any unfinished Quad business President Biden will try to conclude in the next four months?”
MR RUBIN: Great, thanks. This is Josh. Thanks for the question, Will. The President was very clear in his remarks on Saturday at the summit that the Quad is here to stay, and that’s a line you also heard Prime Minister Modi use in his remarks during the press pool spray yesterday, and it’s a line all four leaders agreed to include in the joint leaders statement – the Wilmington Declaration.
As we mentioned in the opening, the last U.S. administration elevated the Quad to the foreign ministers level in 2019, and President Biden then made the decision to elevate the Quad to the leader level in 2021. So we think there is broad bipartisan support for the Quad within the United States. That’s true on Capitol Hill as well. In addition to the bipartisan, bicameral Quad Caucus, the House of Representatives passed the Strengthening the Quad Act with nearly 400 votes earlier this year.
And the reason the Quad has such bipartisan support in the United States and broad-based support in each Quad country is because the Quad is critical to the future of the Indo-Pacific and all of our countries share that assessment.
In terms of priorities over the next four months, our top priority for the Quad will be implementing and following through on the commitments that our leaders made to ensure that we are delivering for our partners across the Indo-Pacific region.
MODERATOR: Thank you. Our next question will come from the live queue, from Satyam Kaushik from Indo-Asian News Service. You should be able to unmute yourself now. Let’s see. Satyam, can you unmute yourself? All right, maybe we’ll go to someone else first then. We have Colin Clark with – let’s see, Colin is with Breaking Defense in Sydney, Australia. Colin, you should be able to unmute yourself now.
QUESTION: There we go. Can you hear me?
MODERATOR: We – yes, we can.
QUESTION: Excellent. So the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency awarded a small contract earlier this year for a lot of the sort of data that the maritime domain effort will fuse. And I want to make sure, A, that that is part of the mix here. I know that Singapore and other – and Pacific Island countries are providing data. So is that happening? And B, how much money in total is being spent on this, and how much of that money is new?
MS JACKSON: Well, hearing no one answer, I will jump in, Colin. Thank you for the question. I don’t know the National Geospatial contract that you reference. I will say that the Quad’s Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness initiative, IPMDA, draws on commercially available satellite data that is provided by Quad countries through the fusion centers. So this is commercially available data that gets fed into the system.
I don’t have total funding numbers for all that has been spent by all four Quad countries on this initiative. It is being run – as I said, all four countries are contributing to this network.
MR RUBIN: And maybe I can just add a word, Nancy, to your great lay-down there because – just to get at the point of what was – what is new in maritime security that was announced at this summit. On top of the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness that was announced in 2022, we announced at the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and then again here at the Leaders’ Summit that India has taken the lead to extend the data sharing to the Indian Ocean region. So in sum, IPMDA is now covering over two dozen – benefitting over two dozen partners across the Indo-Pacific region.
The Quad leaders also announced that new technology on top of the radio frequency data that is already being provided to those over two dozen countries will be incorporated going forward. And we also announced a major new training initiative to ensure that our partners across the region are able to incorporate the data feeds that we are sharing into what they currently use, and to ensure that we sharpen the maritime picture for our partners across the region.
MODERATOR: Okay. Our next question came in from Satyam Kaushik, who typed in the question in the Q&A box from the Indo-Asian News Service based in – based in India. The question is: “There’s a section that believes the Quad hasn’t become as muscular as they would like, with softer issues occupying its agenda over real challenges in the South China Sea. Any comments on this? And has the focus on the Indo-Pacific diluted due to Russia’s war with Ukraine and the dominance of European continental security because of it? Doesn’t it benefit China, allowing a free pass for fresh aggression in the South China Sea or Taiwan Strait?” Over.
MR RUBIN: Sure. I’m happy to start on that one. As I said in the opening remarks, the Quad is working to deliver in the areas that our partners identify as priorities for them, and maritime security is a priority for many partners across the Indo-Pacific region; that is why the Quad is stepping up to ensure that countries across the region have a better ability and capacity to see what is happening in their exclusive economic zones. So we will continue to do that in partnership with countries across the region because it is at their request and in partnership with them.
On issues across the region that are obviously of concern, including in the South China Sea, East China Sea, and elsewhere, I will just note that this year’s Quad joint leaders’ statement included the strongest-ever language that Quad leaders have used on issues in the South China Sea in particular as well as issues related to the increasing provocations from North Korea as well.
So I think you can continue to expect that when – that the Quad will stand up for a free and open Indo-Pacific region. And when actions are taken that undermine a free and open Indo-Pacific region, the Quad will continue to speak out on those.
MS JACKSON: Hey, it’s Nancy again. I’m just going to add on to Josh’s good comments, just to note that the war in Ukraine does not dilute our focus on the Indo-Pacific. I think it’s clear by just the sheer number of meetings that we have at the foreign minister and the leaders’ level, we demonstrate our continued commitment to this region. And there’s no dilution in terms of our focus in trying to really promote an open and safe and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
MODERATOR: Thank you. Our next question goes to Rurika Imahashi with Nikkei, based in Sydney, Australia. Rurika, you should be able to unmute yourself now.
QUESTION: Hi, thank you for taking my question. My name is Rurika Imahashi from Nikkei. So Australia and the U.S. have been increasing cooperation on setting up alternative supply chains for critical minerals, but oversupply and volatile prices have made the financing of new projects difficult. What exactly will be done from the U.S. end to support the sector in Australia?
MS DAWSON: This is Camille. I can respond to that very briefly because this call is not specifically focused on the U.S.-Australia bilateral relationship. I can’t speak to the details of what we might do on a bilateral basis.
But I can just speak a bit more broadly to say that the U.S. and Australia, of course, are working together to address supply chain issues broadly, both on a bilateral basis and as part of other groupings, to include IPEF, or the Indo-Pacific Economic Forum. As you may know, IPEF members have signed a first-of-its-kind international supply chain agreement, and that gives partners tools to collaborate to prevent supply chain disruptions, work together in the event of those interruptions or disruptions, and to be able to respond to prevent delays or shortages. So I think I’ll stop there.
MODERATOR: Okay. We have a question from Gordon Arthur at Defense News based in New Zealand. “What role does defense play in the Quad, and how much concern is there among the four partners about the belligerence and military coercion of China?”
MS DAWSON: So this is Camille. I can speak a little bit about that and will ask that Josh and/or Nancy add on to that. But I think the most important thing to note is that the Quad represents four maritime democracies. We share a vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific. It is not a security pact. It’s not a military alliance. We do have bilateral defense relationships with all three Quad partners on a bilateral basis, and sometimes on a coordinated basis along with other partners. We do things in the defense cooperation space. But the Quad itself is not a defense or security organization, and we don’t intend for it to be so.
We are working together across the Quad to enable maritime security programs that help ensure that the region is building up the collective capacity to respond to the challenges that are faced in the region across multiple domains. I’ll stop there and ask if others have points to add.
MODERATOR: Okay. Maybe we’ll move to the one last question, then. We have Sidhant Sibal from WION News in Delhi, India. You should be able to unmute yourself now, Sidhant.
QUESTION: Hi, everyone. I’m Sidhant from WION. My question is on semiconductors, how is the Quad working? Anybody can answer.
MR RUBIN: Sure, I’m happy to start on this. The Quad has an entire workstream dedicated to critical and emerging technology, and ensuring that we are working with partners across the region as this important field develops. And the Quad remains committed to advancing cooperation on semiconductors specifically by better leveraging our complementary strengths to realize a diversified and competitive market, and to enhance the resilience of the Quad semiconductor supply chains.
There was a memorandum of cooperation between Quad countries for the Semiconductor Supply Chains Contingency Network. We also expect semiconductors and critical and emerging technology issues writ large to be a topic of discussion when Quad commerce and industry ministers meet for the first time in the coming months.
MODERATOR: Okay. If we have nothing more to add on that question, we will move to the closing remarks. Director Rubin, do you have anything you want to close us out with?
MR RUBIN: Just to say thank you to everybody for joining, to the State Department for putting this call on. The Quad summit, from our perspective, was incredibly successful and historic for President Biden’s legacy, and we’re confident it will be an enduring piece of the Indo-Pacific architecture going forward.
MODERATOR: DAS Dawson?
MS DAWSON: Sure. I just want to highlight a few main points that I think are reflected in the President hosting the Quad Leaders’ Summit, and that we’ve seen come out in the remarks that the leaders themselves made. The first is that I think it’s clear that the Quad is more strategically aligned than ever. The second is that the Quad is focused on delivering real results for our partners across the Indo-Pacific region, and doing that in the areas that the region itself has identified as most important for them.
And the third, and that we’ve touched on throughout the discussion, is that the Quad is not just an initiative of this administration or any one administration on the part of the U.S. or any of the four Quad countries, but rather this is an initiative that is designed to endure for the long term. And as Josh rightly pointed out, the leaders all emphasized that the Quad is here to stay. Thank you.
MODERATOR: Thank you, DAS Dawson. DAS Jackson, any last words?
MS JACKSON: Thank you. Just to echo all that my colleagues have said, and maybe just add one other point. We’re very excited about the future of the Quad. The Quad continues to focus on improving the lives of the people and communities across the Indo-Pacific and beyond. We are listening to the priorities of our regional partners and harnessing the considerable resources that our four countries bring; and in doing so, we’re advancing a very ambitious agenda for the benefit of the entire region. And I hope that some of the deliverables that we highlighted for you on this call demonstrate that. And with that, I’ll bid you all a good night.
MODERATOR: Thank you. That brings us to the end of our time for today. Thank you for all your questions. I’m sorry we couldn’t get through all of them. And a huge thanks to our speakers for joining us late on Sunday their time.
We will provide a transcript of this briefing to participating journalists as soon as it’s available, and we’d also love to hear your feedback. You can contact us at any time at AsiaPacMedia@state.gov. Thanks again for your participation, and we hope you can join us for another briefing soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment