US, India, Japan, and Australia Foreign Ministers gathered in Washington on Tuesday to formalize a higher cooperation agreement. Some of the established topics are the increase in maritime support among countries in the Pacific and the narrowing of economic ties to the trade of key components of high technology production.
The four countries, known as “Quadruplo), are trying to curtail the Chinese influence in the region. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the main way to combat China is through trade and production.
To obtain such a result, they announced the creation of the “Critical Quad Mineral Initiative”, with the objective of “strengthening economic security and collective resilience, helping to ensure and diversify essential mineral supply chains”. Countries intend to use “policies and practices outside the market to obtain critical minerals, certain derived products, and mineral processing technology”.
The biggest concern of “Quada” countries is the recurring pressure that China imposes in Taiwan and the Southern Sea of China. The Beijing government has already expressed wishes to attach the island, which was part of the country before the civil war that ended the current communist government in 1949. The US and its allies fear this initiative, as Taipei is essential for the production of electronic chips used by almost every line of world technology production.