MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th May, 2022) The leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), comprising Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, will launch a maritime border protection initiative at the summit in Tokyo to enhance the collective surveillance capability in the Indo-Pacific, the White House said.
"This initiative will transform the ability of partners in the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region to fully monitor the waters on their shores and, in turn, to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific," a statement read.
The initiative will be called the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness and will offer a near real time, integrated maritime domain awareness picture, the White House said.
"The benefits of this picture are vast: it will allow tracking of 'dark shipping' and other tactical-level activities, such as rendezvous at sea, as well as improve partners' ability to respond to climate and humanitarian events and to protect their fisheries," according to the statement.
On Tuesday, Quad leaders will hold their second personal summit, in Tokyo. The dialogue was launched in an online format in March of last year, followed by a face-to-face heads of state summit in the US last September and another virtual summit in March.
