Sec. 203. Boosting Quad cooperation
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It is the sense of Congress that— as a Pacific power, the United States should continue to strengthen its cooperation with Australia, India, and Japan, (commonly referred to as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad ) to enhance and implement a shared vision to meet regional challenges and to promote a free, open, inclusive, resilient, and healthy Indo-Pacific, characterized by respect for democratic norms, rule of law, and market-driven economic growth, and that is free from undue influence and coercion; the United States should expand dialogue and cooperation through the Quad with a range of partners to support the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values, and territorial integrity, and to uphold peace and prosperity and strengthen democratic resilience in the Indo-Pacific; the recent pledge from the first-ever Quad leaders meeting on March 12, 2021, to respond to the economic and health impacts of COVID–19, including expanding safe, affordable, and effective vaccine production and equitable access, and to address shared challenges, including in cyberspace, critical technologies, counterterrorism, quality infrastructure investment, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, as well as maritime domains, further advances the important cooperation among Quad nations that is so critical to the Indo-Pacific region; building upon their announced commitment to finance 1,000,000,000 or more COVID–19 vaccines by the end of 2022 for use in the Indo-Pacific region, the United States International Development Finance Corporation, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, including through partnerships other multilateral development banks, should also venture to finance development and infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific region that are competitive, transparent, and sustainable; the United States should participate in the Resilient Supply Chain Initiative launched by Australia, Japan, and India in 2020, along with similar initiatives that relocate supply chains in the health, economic, and national security sectors to the United States, its Quad partners, and other like-minded countries; and the formation of a Quad Intra-Parliamentary Working Group could— sustain and deepen engagement between senior officials of the Quad countries on a full spectrum of issues; and be modeled on the successful and long-standing bilateral intra-parliamentary groups between the United States and Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom, as well as other formal and informal parliamentary exchanges.
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a strategy for bolstering engagement and cooperation with the Quad. The strategy required by paragraph
(1)shall include the following: A description of how the United States intends to demonstrate democratic leadership in the Indo-Pacific through quadrilateral engagement with India, Japan, and Australia on shared interests and common challenges. A summary of— current and past Quad initiatives across the whole of the United States Government, including to promote broad based and inclusive economic growth, trade, and investment, and to advance technology cooperation, energy innovation, climate mitigation and adaptation, physical and digital infrastructure development, education, disaster management, and global health security; proposals shared among Quad countries to deepen existing security cooperation, intelligence sharing, economic partnerships, and multilateral coordination; and initiatives and agreements undertaken jointly with Quad countries, in addition to other like-minded partners in the Indo-Pacific, on areas of shared interest. A description of efforts to jointly— expand ongoing COVID–19 cooperation to prepare for the next pandemic by focusing on medium-term vaccine and medical supply production and building a broader dialogue on global public health; combat economic coercion, deepen regional economic engagement and integration, and strengthen regional rules and standards around trade and investment; strengthen climate actions on mitigation, adaptation, resilience, technology, capacity-building, and climate finance; facilitate the development of quality infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific through joint financing, investment, technical assistance, and standards setting; enhance joint maritime security and maritime domain awareness initiatives to protect the maritime commons and support international law and freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific; and develop international technology standards and share or co-develop new innovative technologies of the future.