Quad ministers flag concerns over economic coercion | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News - NHKニュース

The foreign ministers of Japan, the United States, Australia and India have raised serious concerns over economic coercion during their discussions on the Indo-Pacific region. The move was apparently made with China in mind.

The ministers attended a meeting of the four-nation framework, known as the Quad, in Atlanta on Saturday, where a gathering of G20 foreign ministers was taking place.

Japan's Motegi Toshimitsu, the US' Marco Rubio, Australia's Penny Wong and India's Subrahmanyam Jaishankar exchanged views on developments in the Indo-Pacific. They expressed "grave concerns regarding economic coercion, including through arbitrary export restrictions," and "non-market policies and practices that result in overcapacity to disrupt global supply chains in critical industries."

At the same time, Motegi expressed strong opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion.

The ministers then reaffirmed that they would steadily advance concrete cooperation among Quad members toward the realization of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. To do so, they said they will promote tangible initiatives, focusing on such areas as maritime and economic security.

They also announced plans to provide more than 85 million dollars in technical and financial assistance to help spread trustworthy AI technologies across the Indo-Pacific.

The ministers issued a document outlining these initiatives and confirmed that they will maintain close coordination in preparation for the next summit of their nations' leaders.