Liverpool [UK]: Japan and Australia have pledged to promote security cooperation of the Quad group, also including the United States and India in response to China’s rising assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region, a media report said. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and his Australian counterpart Marise Payne in a meeting on Saturday in Liverpool agreed to elevate the two countries’ “special strategic partnership” to a higher level as part of efforts to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific, reported Kyodo News. Both leaders underlined the importance of a pact by Japan, Australia and the United States plus Micronesia, Nauru and Kiribati. The deal aims to build a new undersea cable to improve internet connectivity to the three Pacific island states. The two leaders held talks on the sidelines of the Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting on Sunday. Australian Minister Payne was invited to expanded sessions on Sunday along with her peers from South Korea, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in an apparent move by the G-7 nations to tighten the noose around Beijing, whose military and economic clout in the Info-Pacific has been growing, according to Kyodo News.
