Quad creates surveillance system against illegal fishing in Indo-Pacific

Tokyo, May 24 (EFE).- The countries of the Quad agreed today to create a maritime surveillance system against illegal fishing in the Indo-Pacific, after complaints from Japan and other nations in the region about the incursions of Chinese ships into their waters.

The new initiative, dubbed the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Association, was announced Tuesday during a summit of leaders from the United States, Japan, India and Australia held in the Japanese capital.

The system will offer a “near real-time picture” of maritime activities in the fishing areas of the four members of the Quad through the combination of automatic radio frequency identification systems, according to a senior White House official.

This will expand the partners’ capabilities to police the waters of the Pacific, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, combating illegal fishing and other clandestine activities, and improving aid deployment during natural or humanitarian disasters, according to Quad countries.

The control of maritime domains “is a fundamental requirement for peace, stability and prosperity,” highlight the partners, who also point out that this new system will promote “a free and open Indo-Pacific,” according to the joint declaration adopted at the summit.

Japan, the country that holds the rotating presidency of the Quad, has been denouncing the continuous approaches and incursions of Chinese ships in the waters surrounding the Japanese archipelago, and in particular around the Senkaku Islands, administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing.

Among these approaches there have been Chinese military ships carrying out maneuvers, some of them with Russia, a country with which Japan also has a territorial dispute over the Southern Kuril Islands that Moscow annexed at the end of World War II.

The Quad summit took place Tuesday in Tokyo, coinciding with the Asian tour of US President Joe Biden, and is the second face-to-face meeting of leaders of this strategic security forum after the first held in September in Washington. EFE

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