Australia-India-Japan-US Quad to build a port, unveil pact on critical minerals

The foreign ministers of Australia, India, Japan and the US agreed to jointly build a port in Fiji and signed pacts covering critical minerals and energy security, as they sought to inject fresh energy into the grouping. The brief meeting between the countries’ top diplomats — Australia’s Penny Wong, India’s S Jaishankar, Japan’s Toshimitsu Motegi and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio — was the third such gathering of the group known as Quad since September 2024. The Quad meeting came as the US and Iran have been circling around a possible deal to end their three-month conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The group unveiled its first joint infrastructure project, a port in Fiji. “We are going to be partnering on issues of port infrastructure, in particular in response to insufficient port capacity in the Pacific Islands, we are announcing plans to work with Fiji,” Rubio said, adding that the initiative would be “a practical demonstration of our collective ability to deliver high-quality, resilient infrastructure”, The four-nation group had lost some momentum last year after failing to hold a leaders’ summit, amid tensions between US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Washington’s tariffs and other matters. “We are beginning to show real achievements and real accomplishments,” Rubio said. “We are deeply committed to this partnership. It is a linchpin and a cornerstone of our global strategy as a nation in the US.” He said the group agreed to launch an initiative on Indo-Pacific Energy Security and a critical minerals framework. The minerals framework will guide how to leverage economic policy tools and coordinate investment to strengthen critical minerals supply chains — including in mining and processing — and in critical minerals recycling, Rubio said. The initiative could be significant for Japan after China halted shipments of some minerals used in aerospace, defence and semiconductor industries following a diplomatic dispute