The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD, also known as the Quad) is an informal strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan, Australia and India that is maintained by talks between member countries.
History
The dialogue was initiated in 2007 by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, with the support of Vice President Dick Cheney of the US, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India.
The dialogue was paralleled by joint military exercises of an unprecedented scale, titled Exercise Malabar. The diplomatic and military arrangement was widely viewed as a response to increased Chinese economic and military power, and the Chinese government responded to the Quadrilateral dialogue by issuing formal diplomatic protests to its members.
Later Australia withdraw from this, reflecting ambivalence in Australian policy over the growing tension between the United States and China in the Asia-Pacific and QUAD ceased it’s existece for a while.
Current Status
During the 2017 ASEAN Summits in Manila, all four former members led by Shinzo Abe, Narendra Modi, Malcolm Turnbull, and Donald Trump agreed to revive the quadrilateral alliance in order to counter China militarily and diplomatically in the South China Sea. Thus Austraila with the change of leadershp, came back to QUAD.
Tensions between Quad members and China have led to fears of what was dubbed by some commentators as “a new Cold War” in the region.
In 2020-21 joint statement of QUAD, the members described to promote the shared vision of Free and open Indo – Pacific. In the years beween, creation, cessation and restarting of QUAD, the members continued to co-operate on various areas, even involving non- members for issues such as extending support during Covid – 19 pandemic.