Towards a Quad-Plus Arrangement?

By Dr Rajeswari Rajagopalan

Dr Rajagopalan is part of our our inaugural Indo-Pacific Fellows program for 2020. Over the coming months, our Indo-Pacific Fellows will be offering expert analyses of social, political, economic and security developments from the region. They will contribute analysis briefs, blogs, interviews, webinars and explainers to the Centre’s programs.

Towards a Quad-Plus Arrangement? is the first instalment from our Fellows program and discusses some early signs of how international partnerships might be shaped by the COVID-19 crisis. 

Recently, senior officials of the four “Quad” countries (Australia, India, Japan and the United States) teleconferenced about how to respond to the pandemic. Quad meetings are no longer unusual. But this one was special because it included three additional Indo-Pacific powers: New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam.

This Perth USAsia Centre analysis brief examines the possible expansion of the Quad mechanism, and how such an expansion might be feasible.