Notes / Geopolitical Observatory of the Indo-Pacific
6 July 2026
The Geopolitics of Indo-Pacific Ports.The Quad and Its Shift Towards Ports and Critical Minerals in an Indo-Pacific Without ‘Indo’
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Senior Research Fellow, co-Head of the Asia-Pacific Programme, Director of the Indo-Pacific Geopolitical Observatory, IRIS
Strategic developments in the Indo-Pacific have recently seen two significant and seemingly contradictory developments. The first relates to a meeting of the four foreign ministers from the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or QUAD (namely India, Japan, Australia and the United States), held in New Delhi on 29 May 2026. The second relates to the renaming of the US IndoPacific Command, USINDOPACOM, which reverted to the US Pacific Command, USPACOM, on 16 June 2026. This US pivot back to the Pacific raises questions at a time when the QUAD appears to be gaining new momentum.