Overview
In support of the Quad (Australia, India, Japan and the United States of America)
The Quad is a diplomatic network. It provides a vehicle for strategic exchange and positive, practical cooperation. It complements Australia's engagement in the ASEAN-led architecture, and our other bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation.
Australia's Quad partnership with India, Japan and the United States is an important pillar of our international agenda. It brings together four like-minded democracies committed to acting in support of an open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific region with ASEAN at its centre.
The Quad's principal objective remains to support Indo-Pacific partners respond to the region's most pressing challenges - COVID-19 vaccines and economic recovery, critical and emerging technology, climate change, maritime security, infrastructure, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, cyber and countering disinformation.
The Quad's origins date back to our cooperation in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami, which created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis around the Indian Ocean. At that time, Quad countries coordinated rapid humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.