QUAD

Why in news?

• Foreign Ministers of the Quad (India, the U.S., Australia, and Japan) met on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to sign a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) partnership into effect.
• Under the HADR, the member countries will coordinate their disaster response operations in the Indo-Pacific region with other National and International agencies, private non-governmental organizations.

About QUAD:

• The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, also known as the Quad, is an informal strategic forum between the United States, Japan, Australia and India.
• The first steps towards quad were originally born from the crisis that followed the tsunami in December 2004. The ‘Tsunami Core Group’, consisting of the U.S., Australia, India and Japan coordinated the humanitarian and disaster relief efforts.
• A direct pitch for Quad was first mooted in 2007 by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. However, the idea didn’t move ahead. In 2012, Abe called for a “Democratic Security Diamond”, a Quad 2.0.
• In 2017, Representatives from the four nations met on the margins of the Manila ASEAN Summit. Since then, periodic meetings have continued.
• The Quad was revived in 2017 with a meeting of Joint Secretary-rank officials of the four countries.
• The dialogue was paralleled by joint military exercises titled Exercise Malabar which is now regularly conducted between forces of Japan, USA, Australia and India.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Which of the following countries is part of the informal grouping called Quadrilateral Security Dialogue?

(b) United States, Japan, Australia and India

(b) India, China, United States and Japan

(c)  France, Britain, United States and Russia

(d) United States, Australia, France and India

                      A

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