Good morning and it’s a great pleasure to welcome you all to this meeting of the Quad Foreign Ministers, meeting for the third time in less than eighteen months.

We will be discussing and deciding our shared activities. Obviously, that will take into account the many challenges and opportunities of the world.

Our focus will clearly be on the Indo- Pacific which is the specific remit of the Quad. At the global level, we have to address issues like supply chain resilience, connectivity chokepoints, manufacturing and resource concentrations, and gaps in critical infrastructure. Each one of them offers a new argument for more partnerships, stronger growth and realizing the promise of technologies.

The Indo-Pacific has in addition its own particular concerns. This will require enhancing strategic confidence, ensuring maritime security, promoting economic choices and fostering a deeper collaborative ethos, and that is best done by promoting trusted and transparent partnerships.

Over the past several months, our officials have advanced collaboration across key Quad priorities, including maritime security, critical technologies, economic resilience, and HADR.

We have seen encouraging progress on many initiatives. As maritime democracies, pluralistic societies, and market economies, we share a responsibility towards a free and open Indo-Pacific, the region must remain a driver of global growth and stability.

We will be underlining that today through our deliberations, which I am confident will be useful and productive. I thank you all for being here and I would request you to make your opening remarks starting with Australia. So over to you, Penny.