In Tokyo, President Biden, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Modi of India, and Prime Minister Kishida of Japan will advance the Quad's ambitious and diverse agenda, including through a major new initiative to improve maritime domain awareness across the Indo-Pacific.
The leaders of the Quad nations-Australia, India, Japan, and the United States-will meet on May 24, 2022 in Tokyo for the fourth time and the second time in person. Established in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami to coordinate humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, the Quad has since become a leading regional partnership dedicated to advancing a common vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific through practical cooperation on diverse 21st-century challenges. With six leader-level working groups-on COVID-19 Response and Global Health Security, Climate, Critical and Emerging Technologies, Cyber, Space, and Infrastructure-the Quad is building habits of cooperation among our four countries that will support a more peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific. President Biden and his fellow Quad leaders welcome the following announcements from the Tokyo Summit:
The Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness
At the Tokyo Summit, the Quad leaders will welcome a major maritime initiative: the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA). In close consultations with regional partners, IPMDA will offer a near-real-time, integrated, and cost-effective maritime domain awareness picture. This initiative will transform the ability of partners in the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region to fully monitor the waters on their shores and, in turn, to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific. Quad countries are committed to contributing to the region's maritime domain awareness-a fundamental requirement for peace, stability, and prosperity-through an investment in IPMDA over five years. The partnership will innovate upon existing maritime domain awareness efforts, rapidly bringing emerging technologies to bear for the greater good of the Indo-Pacific community.
- IPMDA will build a faster, wider, and more accurate maritime picture of near-real-time activities in partners' waters. This common operating picture will integrate three critical regions-the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region-in the Indo-Pacific. The benefits of this picture are vast: it will allow tracking of "dark shipping" and other tactical-level activities, such as rendezvous at sea, as well as improve partners' ability to respond to climate and humanitarian events and to protect their fisheries, which are vital to many Indo-Pacific economies. IPMDA will do so by:
Harnessing commercially-available data using existing technologies. Through a combination of Automatic Identification System and radio-frequency technologies, Quad partners can provide an unprecedented "common thread" of activities. Because of its commercial origin, this data will be unclassified, allowing the Quad to provide it to a wide range of partners who wish to benefit.
Extending support for information-sharing across existing regional fusion centers, such as the Information Fusion Center-Indian Ocean Region, based in India; the Information Fusion Center, based in Singapore; the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, based in the Solomon Islands, and the Pacific Fusion Center, based in Vanuatu, both of which receive support from Australia.
- Quad partners will begin immediate consultations on this opportunity with partners in the region. As the initiative proceeds, the Quad will identify future technologies of promise, allowing IPMDA to remain a cutting-edge partnership that promotes peace and stability throughout the region.
The Quad Fellowship
Quad leaders are proud to open applications for the Quad Fellowship, which will sponsor 100 American, Australian, Indian, and Japanese students to study in the United States each year for graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The Quad Fellowship empowers exceptional STEM graduate students to advance research and innovation throughout their careers with a lens of positive social impact. It does so by providing scholarships, immersive and inspiring events at the nexus of STEM and society, mentorship and career-advancing programming, and cross-cultural exchange opportunities.
- The Quad Fellowship application is live and will remain open until June 30, 2022. The first class of Quad Fellows will arrive on campus in autumn 2023.
The Quad Vaccine Partnership and Global Health Security
The Quad is committed to maintaining its global leadership in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and bolstering global health security. To date, Quad partners have collectively provided 257 million safe and effective doses to the Indo-Pacific. Even as we continue to donate vaccines, we will adapt our collective approaches to and prepare for new variants, including by getting vaccines, tests, treatments, and other medical products to those at highest risk.
- The United States will provide COVID-19 boosters and pediatric doses to countries of greatest need, including in the Indo-Pacific.
- The Biological E, Ltd facility in India will continue to use expanded vaccine-manufacturing capacity as part of the Quad Vaccine Partnership. Our support is building sustainable manufacturing capacity, including for booster shots, which will yield long-term benefit in the fight against COVID-19 and future pandemics.
- The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and EXIM India decided to support a $100 million facility, which will bolster the Indian health care sector, including global capacity for COVID-19 countermeasures.
Climate
The climate crisis is existential for each of our countries and for the Indo-Pacific. The Pacific Islands are particularly vulnerable; as the Pacific Island Forum's Boe Declaration on Regional Security states, "climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific." After inaugurating a Climate Working Group at our first-ever leader summit, in March 2021, our four countries have meaningfully deepened and regularized our cooperation on meeting the climate crisis. The Quad leaders will launch further efforts on green shipping, energy supply chains, disaster risk reduction, and the exchange of climate information services.
- The Quad will broaden and elevate our work to combat climate change by inaugurating two ministerials in the coming months. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg plans to convene Quad Transportation Ministers and relevant stakeholders to accelerate the work of the Shipping Task Force, including progress toward developing Green Shipping Corridors among Quad countries. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm plans to meet with Quad Energy Ministers to catalyze Quad efforts to deploy clean hydrogen, minimize methane emissions, and develop a 10-Year Clean Energy Supply Chain Plan.
- The Quad will cooperate on disaster risk reduction for extreme weather events, including through the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), building on the Quad's joint session on strengthening Indo-Pacific infrastructure and communities at the International CDRI conference.
- The Quad Climate and Information Service Task Force, dedicated to integrating and facilitating climate information services to the broader Indo-Pacific, will convene other Indo-Pacific countries at the September Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Brisbane, to share best practices and gauge user needs in the region.
- The Quad will advance the development of clean hydrogen and clean ammonia fuels and launch a series of roundtables on mitigating methane emissions across our liquified natural gas (LNG) sectors. The Quad will also cooperate to enhance capacity in the broader Indo-Pacific region to participate in high-integrity carbon markets.
Critical and Emerging Technologies
Our four countries are committed to responsible innovation in critical and emerging technologies. Since launching the Critical and Emerging Technologies Working Group at the first-ever leader-level summit of the Quad, in March 2021, Quad partners have mapped collective capacity and vulnerabilities in global semiconductor supply chains, and launched the Common Statement of Principles on Critical Technology Supply Chains, which will provide a cooperative foundation for enhancing supply-chain resilience in the region. At the same time, Quad partners are exploring ways to collaborate on the deployment of open and secure telecommunications technologies in the region, working with industry through Open RAN Track 1.5 dialogues.
- Through a new Memorandum of Cooperation on 5G Supplier Diversification and Open RAN, the Quad will cooperate on technical exchanges and testbed activity to advance interoperability and telecommunications cybersecurity.
- The Quad has advanced technical-standards cooperation through the International Telecommunication Union's Telecommunication Standardization Sector and will redouble its efforts through the new International Standards Cooperation Network, a mechanism for like-minded allies and partners to share information on technical-standards activities and to increase situational awareness, coordination, and influence in international critical and emerging technologies standards.
- To unlock opportunities in critical and emerging technologies through stronger engagement with the private sector, the Quad will convene industry partners to discuss business and investment issues. A Quad Investors Network, an independent consortium of investors that seeks to advance access to capital for critical and emerging technologies within and across the Quad, is being launched today.
Cybersecurity
The Quad Cybersecurity Partnership seeks to build resilience across our four countries in response to cybersecurity vulnerabilities and cyber threats. Its areas of focus are critical-infrastructure protection, led by Australia; supply-chain resilience and security, led by India; workforce development and talent, led by Japan; and software security standards, led by the United States. Its work is guided by new joint cyber principles to improve cyber resilience in a rapidly changing threat environment. These principles aim to prevent cyber incidents, prepare national and international capabilities for potential cyber incidents, and/or respond quickly and effectively to a cyber incident, when or should one occur.
- The Quad will strengthen information-sharing among Quad country Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT), including exchanges on lessons learned and best practices.
- The Quad will improve software and Managed Service Provider (MSP) security by coordinating cybersecurity standards for Quad governments' procurement of software.
- Quad partners will launch a Cybersecurity Day campaign, open to countries across the Indo-Pacific and beyond, as part of our continuing efforts to strengthen cybersecurity awareness and action. This program will provide basic cybersecurity information and training to the most vulnerable sectors of our countries and regions, including schoolchildren, small businesses, and the elderly. Quad partners will lead this campaign in partnership with industry, non-profits, academia, and communities to maximize its effectiveness and reach.
Space
As leaders in space, Quad countries are strengthening cooperation and pooling our collective expertise to exchange satellite data, enable capacity-building, and consult on norms and guidelines.
- Quad partners will strengthen their commitments to the free, full, and open sharing of space-based civil Earth observation data, and will jointly develop and promote the concept of Open Science in the region and globally.
- The United States will coordinate with Quad partners on its cooperative civil Earth observation programs, to include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) GLOBE and DEVELOP programs; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Community Satellite Processing Package (CSPP) and Satellite Proving Ground Flood Mapping Portal; as well as the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Imaging Program.
- As extreme weather events become ever more common in the Indo-Pacific, Quad partners will convene technical experts to drive new cooperation and set the stage for additional disaster mitigation and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief workshops or training among Quad partners.
- The Quad partners intend to host a two-day workshop on implementation of the Long-Term Sustainability (LTS) Guidelines for Indo-Pacific countries focused on LTS implementation and on how LTS implementation can lead to positive changes in domestic policy, regulations, and outcomes.
Infrastructure
To help meet the Indo-Pacific's enormous infrastructure needs, Quad leaders launched the Quad Infrastructure Coordination Group, which will deepen collaboration and pursue complementary actions, including in digital connectivity, transportation infrastructure, clean energy and climate resilience.
- In Tokyo, the Quad's respective heads of development-financing agencies met to discuss enhanced engagement to address the infrastructure-financing gap in the region. This high-level effort-which includes Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Export Finance Australia; India's EXIM; Japan Bank for International Cooperation; and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation-will coordinate our strategic approaches, among our countries and with the private sector, to leverage solutions-oriented tools that support investments in critical sectors such as healthcare, clean energy and climate, digital connectivity, sustainable infrastructure, and supply chains.
Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief
The Quad was forged in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. In recognition of that history and of present-day threats, the Quad established a new humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) mechanism.
- Through the Quad Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Mechanism, Quad partners will be able to coordinate and mobilize our civilian-led disaster assistance efforts, with support from civil defense and military assets when needed, to respond to disasters in the Indo-Pacific. The Partnership provides a framework for Quad partners to coordinate on joint disaster responses and develop a greater understanding of their respective HADR operations. Quad partners may provide joint or coordinated assistance as requested by an affected state in the crisis-alert, crisis-response, or post-crisis-review phases of a disaster. Quad partners will also be able to work together to improve crisis preparedness and early warning.
