WASHINGTON--The United States, Australia, India and Japan recommitted to working together on Tuesday, after the first meeting of the China-focused "Quad" grouping's top diplomats since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
In a joint statement after the talks in Washington, hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on his first day in the job, the four nations said officials would meet regularly to prepare for an upcoming leaders' summit in India, expected this year.
The four countries share concerns about China's growing power and analysts said the meeting was designed to signal that countering Beijing is a top priority for Trump, who began his second term in office on Monday.
Rubio earlier said he said would stress the importance of working with allies "on the things that are important to America and Americans" during the meeting.He posed with Australia's Penny Wong, India's Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Japan's Takeshi Iwaya in front of the flags of their countries before the meeting at the State Department, but did not respond to questions from reporters.
"Significant that the Quad (foreign ministers' meeting) took place within hours of the inauguration of the Trump Administration," Jaishankar said on X after the meeting."This underlines the priority it has in the foreign policy of its member states."
The four nations restated their "shared commitment to strengthening a Free and Open Indo-Pacific where the rule of law, democratic values, sovereignty, and territorial integrity are upheld and defended," the joint statement said.
"We also strongly oppose any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion," it said, an apparent reference to the threat that China will act on its claim to sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan.
Rubio also met separately with the three foreign ministers on Tuesday.Trump officials were working on scheduling another gathering of the foreign ministers at the White House as well, a person involved in planning meetings said.
The Quad grouping met many times during the administration of former President Joe Biden, with a focus on Beijing's military and economic activities in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the South China Sea where U.S. allies have pushed back against Beijing's territorial claims. The grouping has also pledged to advance cooperation in cybersecurity to protect supply chains and critical infrastructure, including undersea cables.
A key aim for Australia was to secure assurances from Washington about the massive AUKUS defense project, designed to allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines and other advanced weapons such as hypersonic missiles, which Trump has not commented on publicly.Australia's Foreign Minister Wong told a news conference in Washington she had a "very positive discussion" with Rubio on AUKUS.
China has denounced the Quad as a Cold War construct and says the AUKUS alliance would intensify a regional arms race.
Wong, who met her Indian and Japanese counterparts in Washington over the weekend, said she also discussed with Rubio critical minerals - an industry where the U.S. and China are battling for supply chain control. "There's a great deal of optimism and confidence about the opportunities ahead, and I am really privileged to have had this level of engagement so early in the new administration," she said.
