Washington | Leaders from Australia, the United States, India and Japan have agreed to ramp up infrastructure investment across more than 30 countries in the Indo-Pacific to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a move Prime Minister Scott Morrison says should not antagonise China but bolster a “free and open” region.

Mr Morrison, along with partners from the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), at the weekend agreed to set up a new infrastructure expert panel that would start identifying projects across the region. These could then be at least part-financed by member countries.