The Quad partners — India, Australia, Japan and the United States — conducted a tabletop exercise, a simulation to launch the Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network (IPLN), at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii from April 28 to May 2.

Indo-Pacific Logistics Network

• Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network pilot project was launched during the fourth Quad Leaders’ Summit in September 2024. 

• It was launched to pursue shared airlift capacity among the four nations and leverage collective logistics strengths, in order to support civilian response to natural disasters more rapidly and efficiently across the Indo-Pacific region. 

• This effort will complement existing efforts with Indo-Pacific partners.

• Together with the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, the IPLN reflects the Quad’s commitment to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific and highlights the value of strengthening practical cooperation to address regional challenges.

What is Quad?

• The Quad, or the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is an informal grouping of four countries — Australia, India, Japan and the United States. 

• It is a diplomatic partnership of four countries committed to promoting stability, resilience and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. 

• The four countries came together 20 years ago to extend assistance in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and that coalition subsequently took form of the Quad.

• The 2004 tsunami was one of the worst disasters in history, claiming the lives of nearly a quarter million people and displacing 1.7 million across 14 countries.

• The four countries contributed over 40,000 emergency responders, working with other partners across the Indo-Pacific region to support millions of people affected by the catastrophe. 

• The Quad has since become a leading regional partnership dedicated to advancing a common vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific through practical cooperation on diverse 21st-century challenges. 

• The foreign ministers of the four countries held their first meeting under the Quad framework in New York in September 2019.

• The first Leaders’ Summit of the Quad was held virtually in March 2021.

• The Quad recognises that international law, peace, and security in the maritime domain underpins the development and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific. 

• The countries are determined to deepen engagement with regional partners, including through capacity-building and technical assistance, to strengthen maritime domain awareness, protect their ability to develop offshore resources, consistent with  the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

• The Quad is exchanging information on ever-evolving threats and working with Indo-Pacific countries, and in multilateral fora, to counter all forms of terrorism and violent extremism.

• Quad partners champion the free, open, and inclusive rules-based order, rooted in international law, that protects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of regional countries.

• The Quad has been focusing on cooperation in areas such as producing vaccines, connectivity projects, facilitating the mobility of students and looking at promoting startups and technology collaboration.

• The Quad countries now work together and with partners across the Indo-Pacific to address complex challenges — from fighting climate change, cancer and pandemics, to bolstering quality infrastructure, counter-terrorism efforts, critical and emerging technologies, and cybersecurity.

• Since 2021, the leaders of the four nations have met annually to drive the Quad’s positive contributions across South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

• India is scheduled to host the next Quad Summit that is likely to take place in the second half of 2025.

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