The foreign ministers of Australia, India and Japan recently noted that the Quad is cooperating in intelligence sharing on threats in the Indo-Pacific.
The ministers, for the first time since the formation of this group, sought justice for the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai (2008) as well as the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack.
They held their 4th Quad Ministerial Meeting in Melbourne on February 11, 2022, to promote the delivery of over a billion COVID vaccines to be manufactured in India, steps to ensure maritime security in the region and a special meeting on climate change. It was resolved to organize
He also announced plans for a Quad summit with PM Modi, Australian PM Morrison and US President Biden. The summit will be hosted by Japanese Prime Minister Kishida in Tokyo in the first half of 2022.
The Quad is an informal strategic dialogue between India, Japan, the United States and Australia with the common objective of ensuring and supporting a “free, open and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region. The idea of building a quad was first mooted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007. But it did not go ahead as Australia pulled out of it due to Chinese pressure. Shinzo Abe again pioneered the concept of a “Democratic Security Diamond” involving India, the US, Australia and Japan to safeguard maritime common interests from the Indian Ocean to the Western Pacific. Finally in November 2017, India, Australia, the US and Japan formed the Quad Alliance to come up with a new strategy to keep sea routes free of any influence in the Indo-Pacific.
