New Delhi: In a joint statement largely stripped of geopolitical positioning and focused instead on economic issues, the Quad foreign ministers on Saturday (October 31) reiterated the need for unhindered navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, explicitly adding the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to the key maritime routes, while announcing over US$85 million in assistance to expand access to artificial intelligence across the Indo-Pacific.The ministers met in Atlanta on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, which was chaired US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted. It was the third Quad foreign ministers’ meeting this year, after the one in New Delhi in May and Manila in July.As in May, the statement says only that the ministers look forward to “the convening of the Quad Leaders’ Summit”. It names no host, venue or date, or nor does it indicate whether the summit could take place in the near future.This matters because the grouping has not held a leaders’ summit since Wilmington in September 2024, and India, as chair, was meant to host one in 2025. The US secretary of state had previously said that a Quad leaders summit could be held on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Manila.At Atlanta, Rubio said that he hoped “when our leaders meet in November, they will be able to announce some more concrete steps”. Geopolitical references missing from joint statementWith the October joint statement titled “Economic Prosperity and Security”, the Quad document had a much narrower focus, omitting the detailed observations on geopolitical hotspots that featured in the previous iterations.Saturday’s statement made no reference to the South China Sea or the East China Sea, or to the arbitral tribunal’s award in favour of the Philippines. However, the Japanese readout claimed that the ministers had held “candid discussions” not only about developments in West Asia but also about the two maritime regions in the Indo-Pacific.Similarly, the joint statement made no reference to fighting terrorism and skipped Pahalgam terror attack mention, but Jaishankar, in a post on X after the meeting, said the ministers had also discussed taking forward agreements on “counter-terrorism, maritime security and capacity building”. Instead, the latest document listed out a range of updates and initiatives on critical mineral supply chains, technology cooperation and maritime connectivity.The Quad ministers expressed “grave concerns regarding economic coercion, including through arbitrary export restrictions, as well as non-market policies and practices that result in overcapacity to disrupt global supply chains in critical industries”.The language appeared to be an indirect reference to China’s restrictions on exports of rare earths and other critical minerals, which have become a major source of concern for the United States and its partners.Asked whether the concerns about economic coercion and export restrictions were directed at China, Rubio said the Quad was not an “anti-China or anti-anybody coalition”. He said the grouping was concerned about “behaviours” and “activities”, adding that if those activities were repeatedly coming from one country, “that’s going to be obvious to everybody”.Bab el-Mandeb added to Quad’s maritime focusThe joint statement stressed the “absolute necessity to protect and preserve navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait”, and the need for passage “without the imposition of tolls”. The May text referred only to Hormuz and the Red Sea, and condemned “the attacks on commercial shipping vessels”. The Atlanta text does not repeat that condemnation and does not name Iran or the Houthis.The addition reflects the widening of the war in recent months, with the Iran-backed Houthis stepping up attacks, including strikes on Saudi territory.The Bab el-Mandeb, between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and is a key passage for vessels travelling between the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal.At the press availability, Rubio would not say whether the US would join Saudi strikes on the Houthis, calling that “a decision for the president”. He said Washington would honour its defence agreements with Saudi Arabia and that the Houthis’ capabilities would not exist without Iranian support. On Hormuz, he said the president had repeatedly asked countries to join the effort to protect shipping, but there had been “very limited cooperation” and the burden had fallen “primarily on the United States”. Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has ordered the armed forces to be ready for a response with no “geographic limits” to any attack, while Qatari mediators try to broker a path out of the war. The Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a proposal had been reached with mediators to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iranian diplomats were in Qatar for discussions.Trump’s ‘Super Intelligence’The October document, in which the US as the hosts of the meeting, placed considerable emphasis on technology cooperation, or what it terms “Super Intelligence” or SI. The Quad release includes a footnote clarifying that, in Australia, India and Japan, “Super Intelligence” refers to “artificial intelligence”. Earlier in September, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal departments and agencies to use “Super Intelligence” instead of “Artificial Intelligence” in official communications and other non-statutory documents. His argument was that “artificial” makes the technology sound fake.The ministers “expressed their intent to provide over $85 million of technical and financial assistance to support access to trusted SI across the Indo-Pacific, including through the Quad SI Accelerator”. They also pledged to identify “chokepoints” in semiconductor and SI hardware supply chains “before they cause disruptions”, and to cooperate on trusted 5G, 6G and Open RAN networks.On critical minerals, the statement says cooperation under the framework announced in May has centred on recovering minerals from electronic waste and scrap, to reduce reliance on any single supplier. The only figure it gives is a US commitment of $10 million for facilities in India and ASEAN countries that recover critical minerals from waste. Five months ago, the Quad had announced, which was reflected in news headlines, the Quad Critical Minerals Framework, which committed to mobilising up to $20 billion in government and private-sector support.