Hiroshima: The Quad countries at the Leaders’ Summit here Saturday launched the Quad principles on technology design, development, governance and use, to make the lives of the people more secure, prosperous and rewarding.
“We affirmed that critical and emerging technologies should be shaped by our shared democratic values and respect for universal human rights, and we underscored our commitment to fostering an open, accessible and secure technology ecosystem, based on mutual trust and confidence,” said a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs after the conclusion of the Quad Leaders’ Summit here.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese held talks on pressing global challenges at the annual Quad summit here.
The statement said the Quad leaders released these Principles on Critical and Emerging Technology Standards in recognition of the importance of technology standards for meeting these shared objectives.
“Technology standards should foster the development of critical and emerging technologies that make the lives of our citizens more secure, prosperous and rewarding. They should promote interoperability, innovation, trust, transparency, diverse markets, security-by-design, compatibility, inclusiveness and free and fair market competition,” the statement said.
It said the leaders of Quad countries — Australia, Japan, India, and the US — were committed to supporting industry-led, consensus-based multi-stakeholder approaches to the development of technology standards, and recognised the importance of procedures that ensure trust, transparency, openness, impartiality and consensus.
The Quad leaders said they welcome a vibrant technology ecosystem with healthy competition and a diversity of participation and advocate for a transparent approach to technology standards development.
“We affirm our support for inclusive practices such as the use of diverse and inclusive data sets in the field of artificial intelligence, to encourage the development of technology standards that take into account diverse views and voices,” the statement said.
The Quad leaders also welcomed all other nations to join in pursuit of this shared vision for the development of technology standards, guided by these principles.
During the summit, the “Open RAN Security Report: Outcome from Quad Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group” was also released on worldwide efforts to open up the interfaces between the devices that make up the base station, beginning with Open RAN.
“The Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) Alliance, an international association for open and intelligent Radio Access Networks (RANs), has grown into a global and large industry association with Testing and Integration Centres (OTICs), which are open and neutral interoperability verification, being established in Europe, the USA and Asia, including Japan,” said the report released by the Ministry of External Affairs.
“The importance of these systems in society and the economy is increasing, and it is important to ensure their security,” the report said.
“The widespread use of O-RAN specifications is expected to break the telecoms base station oligopoly, and market competition between vendors is expected to improve the performance of individual devices and reduce the cost of equipment considering increased market competition,” the report emphasised.
PTI