The Quad

The Quad, informal security grouping comprising four countries—Australia, India, Japan, and the United States. Originally formed in 2007, it became inactive the following year. The Quad was revived in 2017 and has been active since. Its stated goal is “to support an open, free, and inclusive Indo-Pacific,” a maritime region of geopolitical importance in the Indian and Pacific oceans that includes countries across South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, several Pacific Islands, and parts of eastern Africa. Many analysts view the Quad as a group that emerged partly in response to China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific. Today the Quad also cooperates on climate change, trade, technology, and other security domains.

History

Background and early development

The Quad traces its origins to the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, when Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S. formed the Tsunami Core Group, an informal coalition created to coordinate the rapid delivery of aid to affected communities. Although short-lived, it was relatively successful in coordinating humanitarian assistance and relief efforts, which encouraged the four countries to explore deeper cooperation.

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe played a key role in advancing the idea of a quadrilateral dialogue. In November 2006 Abe’s foreign minister, Asō Tarō, called for greater cooperation between Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S. The following month Abe met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Tokyo, and both leaders agreed to cooperate closely on maritime issues and have a dialogue with “other like-minded countries.” In May 2007 the first meeting of the Quad took place on the sidelines of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in Manila, where delegates from the four countries met. This meeting is recognized by Quad members as their first formal gathering. During his first visit to India as premier in August 2007, Abe delivered a speech titled “Confluence of the Two Seas” to the Parliament of India, describing the Indian and Pacific oceans as “seas of freedom and of prosperity” and urging “like-minded countries” such as Australia, India, and the U.S. to deepen collaboration in the region. That same year Japan and Australia participated for the first time in the Malabar naval exercise, which had traditionally been a bilateral drill between India and the U.S. However, efforts to advance the Quad soon came to an abrupt halt.

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In 2008 the newly elected Australian government, led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, pulled out of the Quad over concerns that continued participation in the group would hurt bilateral ties with China. The Chinese government had opposed the initial Quad meeting and reportedly viewed the group as a potential challenge to its regional interests. Similar apprehensions were expressed by other members, and enthusiasm for the initiative faded. The group remained inactive for about a decade.

Organization

The Quad is an informal organization and, as such, has no formal institutions, structures, or a permanent headquarters. Many analysts and scholars describe it as more of a dialogue than a formal organization. It is also often cited as an example of a “minilateral” organization, as opposed to a multilateral organization.

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Joint cooperation among the Quad countries in the Indo-Pacific has remained a central focus of the grouping. A joint statement from the first Quad Leaders’ Summit (2021) titled the “The Spirit of the Quad” highlighted the importance of the region.

Together, we commit to promoting a free, open rules-based order, rooted in international law to advance security and prosperity and counter threats to both in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. We support the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values, and territorial integrity. We commit to work together and with a range of partners. We reaffirm our strong support for ASEAN’s unity and centrality as well as the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. Full of potential, the Quad looks forward to the future; it seeks to uphold peace and prosperity and strengthen democratic resilience, based on universal values.

Although the Quad has not criticized China by name, it has expressed concern over the country’s military activities in the region. A joint statement released after a meeting with Quad foreign ministers in Washington, D.C., in July 2025 stated:

We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East China Sea and South China Sea. We reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion. We express our serious concerns regarding dangerous and provocative actions, including interference with offshore resource development, the repeated obstruction of the freedoms of navigation and overflight, and the dangerous maneuvers by military aircraft and coast guard and maritime militia vessels, especially the unsafe use of water cannons and ramming or blocking actions in the South China Sea. These actions threaten peace and stability in the region.

Apart from its focus on the Indo-Pacific, the Quad has emphasized the importance of collaborating across critical security domains, including climate change, cybersecurity, outer space, and counterterrorism. It has also addressed key global security challenges, such as the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, tensions between North and South Korea, the Myanmar Civil War, the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars, and the Houthi attacks on ships passing through the Bab-el Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea since 2023.

The 2025 Quad leaders’ summit, which was scheduled to be hosted by India, did not take place. In May 2026 the foreign ministers of all four countries—Penny Wong (Australia), S. Jaishankar (India), Toshimitsu Motegi (Japan), and Marco Rubio (United States)—met in New Delhi. They unveiled a host of key initiatives in several fields, including maritime security and economic cooperation. The four ministers signed the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative aimed at strengthening critical minerals supply chains, reportedly part of an effort to lower dependence on China for supplies of critical minerals, including gallium and yttrium (Also see Strategic and critical minerals: What they are and how to invest in them). The grouping also launched the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration (IPMSC) to strengthen maritime security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Furthermore, it announced a partnership with Fiji to develop port and maritime infrastructure in the country.