ISAS Special Reports

Since its resuscitation on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in 2017, the Quad has moved closer to being a formal grouping. The members – the United States, India, Japan and Australia – have institutionalised an annual foreign ministers’ meeting and, with the invitation of Australia to the 2020 Malabar naval exercises, made the Quad a seemingly organised grouping. The Quad members are slowly building a shared understanding of the need for a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific with like-minded partners across the globe.

This Special Report, which is the outcome of a roundtable organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies and Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Japan, analyses the process through which the Quad has come this far, enduring the challenges and dilemmas that the member states will face as they move forward.