Want to fight illegal fishing (from left): Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, US President Joe Biden, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
(Photo: Reuters)
Tokyo At a summit in Japan, a quartet of leading democracies in the Indo-Pacific region plan to launch a new initiative to improve maritime surveillance, which will also include combating illegal fishing. The White House said on Tuesday that the joint effort by the US, Japan, Australia and India will enable “faster, more extensive and more accurate” ocean surveillance in near real time.
The data would also be made available to partner countries in Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Islands to ensure “a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the White House said. Ships that specifically switch off their position transmission so as not to be caught should also be able to be located better with the system. China is often accused of tolerating or even promoting illegal fishing in the territorial waters of other countries.
The initiative is to be formally launched at the summit meeting of the so-called quad states. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, US President Biden and the Prime Ministers of India, Narendra Modi, and Australia, Anthony Albanese, began their deliberations on Tuesday morning (local time) in Tokyo.
Committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific, the so-called “Quad” group is not officially targeted at any particular state, but is seen as part of an effort to counter communist China’s increasing hold on power in the region.
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“Russia’s attack on Ukraine only underscores the importance of these goals of fundamental principles of the international order, territorial integrity and sovereignty. International law and human rights must always be defended, no matter where in the world they are violated,” Biden said in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Modi does not address the war
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida said the Russian invasion “shakes the foundations of the international order” and poses a direct challenge to United Nations (UN) principles. “We should not allow similar things to happen in the Indo-Pacific region.” , he said.
Indian President Modi did not address Ukraine or Russia in his remarks. India has so far not backed the Russian invasion of Ukraine under US-imposed sanctions. The country has longstanding ties with Russia, which is a major supplier of defense equipment and oil to India.
Australian Prime Minister Albanese, who made his international debut, pledged to invest in the group to fight climate change. The South Pacific island nations face the greatest risks from sea level rise. “The region is looking to work with us and expects us to lead by example,” Albanese said.
Roughly speaking, Indo-Pacific means a region from the Indian to the northern Pacific Ocean, which includes most of Asia and extends to the west coast of the USA. The first face-to-face Quad Summit took place in Washington last September. In addition, according to the White House, there were already two quad video switches.
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