Last month's Quad Foreign Ministers meeting in India confirmed a trend highlighted by a new United States Studies Centre (USSC) report sharing findings from experts representing the four Quad countries: Despite challenges in the US-India relationship, Quad cooperation is becoming more, not less, essential.
In Meeting the moment: How the Quad can deliver in a new strategic era Senior Research Associate Ava Kalinauskas, Senior Research Associate Samuel Garrett and Research Director Jared Mondschein reveal themes from the second Quad Track 1.5 Leadership Dialogue. Held in Sydney, Australia in February 2026, the dialogue included 35 Australian, Indian, Japanese and US officials, experts, academics, industry stakeholders and policy researchers.
“Across the board, participants noted moving towards collective action was the best option to counter increasing geopolitical threats in the region,” Mondschein noted.
“This momentum hasn’t been deterred by the absence of leader-level meetings”
The report notes a strong consensus around the need to home in on fewer priority areas for the Quad, including critical minerals, subsea cable resilience, space security, surveillance and digital infrastructure.
It also warns the Quad risks self-deterring through holding back actions due to concerns about how initiatives may be perceived.
“There was strong ambition in our discussions for the Quad to do more, with or without leader-level meetings,” Mondschein said, “But participants noted the grouping can be not just afraid to fail, but afraid to succeed.”
- Meeting the moment: How the Quad can deliver in a new strategic era is now available to view or download.