Statement issued at G20 foreign ministers' meeting

From left: Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong. [Yonhap]
From left: Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong. [Yonhap]

Foreign ministers of the Quad security grouping — the United States, Japan, Australia and India — agreed to jointly counter China's control over critical mineral supply chains.

The four ministers met Saturday (local time) on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta and issued a joint statement. They were US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

The ministers said they share "serious concern about non-market policies and practices that disrupt global supply chains in key industries by causing economic coercion through arbitrary export restrictions and excess production capacity." No country was named directly, but the statement was widely interpreted as targeting China's supply chain disruptions.

At a press conference that day, Rubio was asked whether the concern about economic coercion was aimed at China. "One country repeatedly engages in these activities and behaviors. That is obvious to everyone," Rubio said, adding that "the Quad is not an anti-China or anti-any-country alliance. It is a cooperative arrangement that shares common interests and a shared opposition to certain practices."

On critical mineral supply chains, the joint statement said the four nations "are jointly pursuing the recovery of critical minerals from e-waste, scrap and waste materials to reduce dependence on any single supplier," and called for "private sector-led investment in waste collection networks, processing factories and refining facilities, and the building of a reliable critical mineral recycling value chain."

The four ministers also announced plans to hold the first-ever Quad Business Leaders Forum, aimed at deepening ties between the public and private sectors, including facilitating commercial transactions in key areas. The forum will bring together corporate executives, government officials and policy experts from Quad member states. Building on a memorandum of cooperation the Quad nations signed in 2024, the forum will convene in Tokyo on Dec. 18 to identify opportunities for cooperation.

The ministers also agreed to identify partner countries for cooperation in advanced telecommunications technologies — including 5G and 6G, open radio access networks and silicon-based radio access networks — and to develop and advance trusted 5G projects.


park.jiyeong@heraldcorp.com