Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD): Interregnum or Strategic Continuity

Syllabus: GS2/International Relation; Global Grouping

Context

• In 2025, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) entered a period of strategic pause, often termed a ‘year of interregnum’, as it faced significant headwinds that tested QUAD’s cohesion, purpose, and long-term viability.

About Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD)

• Evolution of the QUAD: The QUAD’s origins trace back to 2004, when India, Japan, Australia, and the US coordinated humanitarian relief following the Indian Ocean Tsunami. It sowed the seeds for multilateral cooperation.
  • In 2007, Japan proposed a formal ‘Quadrilateral Security Dialogue’ supported by the US, Australia, and India.
    • But, in 2008, Australia withdrew from it, citing concerns about antagonizing China.
  • Revival in 2017: During the ASEAN Summit in Manila, under a backdrop of China’s assertive activities in the South China Sea and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Since then, ministerial and leaders’ summits have institutionalized the dialogue.
  • Between 2021 and 2024: QUAD held six leader-level summits, strengthening cooperation across defense, infrastructure, technology, and supply chains.
• It continued to hold significance as a forum committed to advancing a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

Role of Member Nations

• Each member nation brings unique capabilities: Japan’s technology and finance, US military reach, India’s geographic centrality, and Australia’s regional presence in the South Pacific.
  • India: Focuses on strategic autonomy, maritime security, and balancing China’s influence in the Indian Ocean. Promotes ‘Security and Growth for All in the Region’ (SAGAR).
  • United States: Sees QUAD as central to its ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ strategy, a means to uphold maritime freedom and counter authoritarian expansion.
  • Japan: Advocates rule-based maritime order and FOIP policy.
  • Australia: Ensures regional stability, energy security, and diversification of partnerships beyond China.

Significance & Importance of QUAD

• Ensuring a Free and Open Indo-Pacific: The QUAD serves as a geopolitical counterweight to coercive practices and unilateral assertions in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the South China Sea and East China Sea.
  • QUAD enhances collective maritime security and upholds the UNCLOS, by fostering maritime domain awareness and joint exercises such as Malabar.
• Balancing China’s Assertiveness: QUAD represents ‘strategic balancing through cooperation’, and offers an alternative power structure to China’s BRI, emphasizing transparent and sustainable development.
  • It provides smaller Indo-Pacific states with a non-coercive, democratic choice for infrastructure, connectivity, and technological cooperation, thereby countering debt-trap diplomacy.
• Reinforcing the Rules-Based International Order: All four QUAD nations emphasize adherence to international law, sovereignty, and the sanctity of global commons.
  • Thus, the QUAD is central to defending multilateralism in a fragmented world order, complementing institutions like ASEAN, the UN, and G20.
• Supply Chain Resilience and Economic Security: QUAD established the Resilient Supply Chain Initiative (RSCI) and later, the Quad Resilient Supply Chain Council (2025) amid the disruptions caused by pandemic and geopolitical tensions.
• Technology and Innovation Cooperation: The QUAD promotes collaboration in critical and emerging technologies, including 5G, AI, quantum computing, and biotechnology.
  • In 2025, members launched the Quad Innovation Partnership and an AI Ethics Charter to ensure transparency, accountability, and democratic governance in tech ecosystems.
• Health Security and Pandemic Preparedness: The Quad Vaccine Partnership (2021) laid the foundation for collaborative health responses.
  • It expanded into the Quad Global Health Security Network in 2025, enhancing vaccine distribution and pandemic preparedness in South and Southeast Asia.
• Climate Action and Clean Energy: The Tokyo Summit (2025) introduced the Quad Climate Infrastructure Fund, pooling investments from several global institutions to promote green hydrogen and coastal sustainability.
• Diplomatic and Geopolitical Importance: QUAD symbolizes the collective democratic will to uphold liberty and sovereignty in global governance.
  • It maintains a non-treaty, non-military character, allowing flexibility and inclusivity, unlike NATO.
  • It ensures that regional partners, including ASEAN states, can engage without being drawn into rigid blocs.

Concerns & Issues Surrounding QUAD

• Strategic Ambiguity: One of the most persistent concerns is the lack of clarity regarding the QUAD’s exact nature and objectives.
  • It is neither a formal military alliance (like NATO) nor a fully institutionalized organization.
• Divergent National Interests: The four QUAD nations, while united by democratic values, have distinct threat perceptions and strategic priorities, affecting decision-making, particularly in security and defense coordination.
• China’s Perception and Reaction: China has consistently termed the QUAD as an attempt to form an ‘Asian NATO’, reiterating that the QUAD ‘undermines regional peace and promotes bloc confrontation’.
• Absence of a Permanent Secretariat: QUAD lacks a permanent institutional framework or secretariat (though discussions began in 2025 to establish one in Singapore).
  • It limits continuity, accountability, and operational follow-through.
• Overlapping Minilateralism: The Indo-Pacific is witnessing a proliferation of minilateral forums such as AUKUS, IPEF, and FOIP dialogues.
  • It leads to coordination fatigue and resource duplication.
• Perception of Exclusion and ASEAN Concerns: ‘ASEAN’s centrality’ in Indo-Pacific architecture remains a sensitive issue.
  • QUAD initiatives, particularly maritime and infrastructure projects, operate outside ASEAN mechanisms, undermining its leadership.
  • Countries like Indonesia and Malaysia have voiced concerns that QUAD could ‘split the region into competing spheres of influence;.
• Economic and Technological Competition: Although QUAD promotes cooperation in supply chains and technology, it exposes competitive tensions among members:
  • USA and Japan lead semiconductor technology; India and Australia are primarily consumers and resource suppliers.
  • Differing data governance and privacy standards complicate digital cooperation.
  • Persisting Funding Gaps: QUAD’s infrastructure financing remains modest compared to China’s BRI ($60 billion vs. BRI’s $1 trillion).
• Other Risks:
  • Fragmentation Risk: If national priorities diverge further, QUAD could revert to symbolic diplomacy.
  • Escalation Risk: Increased militarization or defense signaling could provoke regional arms races.
  • Reputational Risk: Failure to deliver tangible regional benefits could erode legitimacy.
  • Coordination Risk: Lack of formal integration with ASEAN or EU Indo-Pacific strategies might limit effectiveness.

Key Initiatives Reinforcing Cooperation

• Quad-at-Sea: Ship Observer Mission (June 2025): It enhanced Coast Guard-level coordination across member nations.
• Ports of the Future Partnership: Its first meeting held in Mumbai, India, in October 2025, emphasized building sustainable and resilient port infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific.
• ‘Malabar’ Naval Exercise: The exercise, conducted in Guam, deepened maritime interoperability among the four navies, symbolizing the QUAD’s enduring maritime focus.
• Future Relevance
• Vision 2030: The ‘Quad Vision 2030 for the Indo-Pacific’ outlines a comprehensive roadmap:
  • Building a regional digital commons and cyber defense framework
  • Enhancing maritime governance and ocean sustainability
  • Integrating QUAD+ partners (Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia) into sectoral dialogues
  • Expanding educational, cultural, and technological exchanges through the Quad University Network.
• It positions QUAD as the cornerstone of Indo-Pacific security and economic architecture over the next decade.

Source: TH