The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue on Tuesday announced initiatives to strengthen maritime security, and improve collaboration on critical minerals and emerging technology.The Quad grouping, comprising India, the United States, Japan and Australia, launched an initiative to collaborate on maritime surveillance in the Indo-Pacific.The programme aims to enhance the sharing of information and maritime domain awareness capacities. The initial focus of the initiative will be in the Indian Ocean, including through tabletop exercises, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said.The announcement was made after the meeting of foreign ministers of the Quad member nations in Delhi on Tuesday.The four countries also announced the creation of the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative Framework. The programme is meant to help member nations coordinate investments to strengthen the supply chains of critical minerals.The countries also announced the Quad Initiative on Indo-Pacific Energy Security.“Each country will leverage unique resources and capabilities from their respective energy sectors,” New Delhi said, adding that the programme is meant to strengthen regional energy resilience through cooperation on technology, policy and emergency response exercises.The initiative to cooperate on energy security comes amid the war in West Asia having disrupted global fuel supplies. The disruption has led to a spike in the prices of fuel and gas.The benchmark Brent crude traded at $114 per barrel on May 4 – the highest point since the war began – before falling to about $100 a barrel by Tuesday. The price of Brent was $78 per barrel on February 27, a day before the conflict started.India imports 88% of its crude oil needs and about half of its natural gas requirement. This mostly comes through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blocked due to the conflict in West Asia.The grouping will help develop port infrastructure in Fiji. This is part of the Quad’s efforts to identify “critical port projects that it can support to increase trade and economic prosperity by increasing port infrastructure and capacity for key Indo-Pacific corridors”.The Quad partners said that they will conduct a counterterrorism tabletop exercise focused on state-sponsored terrorism threats and uncrewed aerial vehicles in June.Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.Also read: Quad in limbo with US-India ties in churn