Australia foreign minister says Quad in Washington shows ‘iron-clad’ commitment By Reuters

By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong met her Indian and Japanese counterparts in Washington and said the invitation of the four foreign ministers to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration shows an “ironclad commitment” to close cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is on track to be confirmed as Trump’s secretary of state on Monday, paving the way for a meeting of the Quartet’s foreign ministers the next day, people familiar with the matter said.

The grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the US was formed amid shared concerns about China’s growing power.

“It is a demonstration of the collective commitment of all countries to the Quad, an ironclad commitment at a time when close cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region is so important,” Wong said at the foreign ministers’ invitation to Washington on Sunday.

Wong said he would also meet with Rubio and other members of the Trump administration, adding that the US alliance was critical to Australia’s defense and economic prosperity.

Wong is expected to discuss the AUKUS defense technology partnership with the US and UK, the decades-long program to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.

He told reporters in Washington that Australia was “going down the path of increasing defense spending”.

“Our focus is on how we continue to implement AUKUS because we believe that capacity is so important to deterrence, which is how you can ensure peace,” he said.

Defense Minister Richard Marles said in a radio interview on Monday that AUKUS would see Australia inject significant funding into the US industrial base to accelerate the pace of production of the US Virginia-class submarines.