Economy
Jaishankar at Quad in Atlanta: Supply Chains, Critical Minerals Take Centre Stage
India's external affairs minister used the Quad foreign ministers' meeting to push resilient supply chains and a more practical agenda, and the joint release backed it with money and projects.
Desh Flash desk1 November 2026, 9:20 am IST2 minUpdated 1 November 2026, 9:20 am IST
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar used the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Atlanta on Saturday to push an economy-first message: keep the Indo-Pacific stable, make supply chains sturdier, and give the grouping a more contemporary, practical agenda. He set out his priorities in a post on X after talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Japan's Toshimitsu Motegi and Australia's Penny Wong.
For anyone who tracks trade and industry, the key phrases were cooperation on supply chain resilience and security in technology, critical minerals and energy. Jaishankar also called for countering non-market practices and rising economic stresses in the region. His post named no country and did not point to specific practices, so the wording reads as a broad principle, not a targeted charge.
The joint release put some numbers behind the themes. The ministers said they intend to provide more than $85 million in technical and financial assistance to widen access to trusted artificial intelligence across the Indo-Pacific, including through the Quad SI Accelerator. That is a signal that the Quad sees AI as infrastructure, not just a technology talking point.
Critical minerals got a concrete project too. The ministers welcomed a US commitment of $10 million to support facilities in India and ASEAN countries that recover minerals from waste. The money is not meant for India alone. The idea is to pull usable minerals from discarded electronics and scrap, cutting dependence on any single supplier, while the partners look at simpler rules for moving recyclable materials across borders.
Security was not sidelined. Jaishankar stressed taking forward agreements on counter-terrorism, maritime security and capacity building. Representatives of all four countries recently sailed aboard an Indian Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel from Chennai to Perth, between September 25 and October 7. The partners plan their first Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration exercise at Sea Dragon 2027, with a maritime domain awareness symposium set for early next year. The ministers also pledged to dismantle online scam operations and hold transnational criminal networks to account, condemning groups that traffic people and force them to defraud others.
One item to watch for the commercial crowd is the first Quad Business Leaders' Forum, announced to strengthen commercial ties and promote deals in key sectors. The Atlanta meeting ran on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting and was the third Quad ministerial of the year, after New Delhi and Manila. That steady cadence suggests the grouping is trying to turn summit language into deliverables.
Source reporting: NDTV.
