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The United States, Japan, India and Australia will work to improve supply chain security for critical technologies like clean energy and alleviate the global semiconductor shortage, said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

At their first personal summit on Friday in Washington, the four countries agreed on a partnership to secure critical infrastructures, as the White House announced.

Morrison told reporters after the meeting that this will include linking Australia's raw minerals with manufacturing and processing capabilities, as well as with end users in the United States, India and Japan, according to a paper released by its administration on Saturday.

Australia is the world's largest supplier of rare earths outside of China and a major supplier of minerals used in electric vehicle batteries, such as nickel, copper and cobalt.

Although the leaders did not publicly mention China, they repeatedly stressed rule-based behavior in a region where China is trying to flex its muscles. Beijing criticized the group as "doomed".

The other leaders of the Quad countries recognized Australia's role in supplying critical raw materials "as they are necessary for the many industries and processing plants that they operate themselves," said Morrison.

"Australia is one of the largest producers of critical minerals, but we believe we can play a bigger role in a critical supply chain that supports the technologies of the future."

Australia will host a clean energy supply chain summit next year to develop a roadmap for building such supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region, Morrison said.

The quad also discussed ways to better secure semiconductor supplies, according to Morrison, as global automakers and other manufacturers cut production due to the shortage exacerbated by the resurgence of COVID-19 in key Asian semiconductor manufacturing centers.

"This is an ecosystem that we want to create and we want to do it in the region," he said.