The present-day Quad — involving India, Japan, Australia, and the United States (US) — first came together in 2004 to bolster humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) efforts in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The group took formal shape in 2007, led by efforts from former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, to emerge as a critical minilateral group in the Indo-Pacific region. The emergence of the Quad coincided with the rise of the Indo-Pacific as a vital security and strategic maritime theatre offering critical opportunities to harness growth and prosperity, marked by the thriving economies in the region. While the group did not sustain momentum and eventually withered, strategic developments in the region, primarily centred around growing Chinese belligerence, caused its resuscitation in 2017, when the four democracies resumed foreign minister-level dialogue on the sidelines of the ASEAN and East Asia Summits in Manila. Since then, the Quad has not only deepened its cooperation in the domain of maritime security in the pursuit of establishing a rules-based free and open maritime order in the Indo-Pacific, but also expanded cooperation in new domains, in tandem with new opportunities arising from the shifting and multifaceted economic realities in the region.
The group’s recent announcement of initiating the Quad Ports of the Future Partnership stands out as one such vital domain where it has sought to expand and bolster its cooperation. The Quad Ports of the Future Partnership was first announced at the Wilmington Summit of the Quad leaders in 2024, and further reiterated at the Foreign Ministers’ meet at Washington in 2025. The group’s venture into the ports sector marks a critical milestone in strengthening efforts to build a resilient maritime connectivity and infrastructure architecture in the Indo-Pacific. By establishing this initiative, the Quad countries seek to coordinate, exchange information, as well as share best practices with partner countries in the Indo-Pacific region. The Quad’s ability to mobilise public and private sector investments in building resilient port infrastructure is likely to make this initiative a global good, which remains much in demand across the region.
Why is cooperation in the domain of building resilient port infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific important? According to estimates, the Indo-Pacific region accounts for nearly 63 percent of global GDP, while facilitating the passage of 50 percent of international maritime trade. Having a robust maritime infrastructure is vital in harnessing the immense potential of growth and prosperity in the region. Towards this end, ports serve as vital nodes in aiding the establishment of a secure and resilient maritime connectivity architecture in the Indo-Pacific. While much of the Indo-Pacific’s strategic discourse remains dominated by the evolving security dynamics, the underlying economic potential of the region, too, is increasingly gaining traction. From the vantage point of the Quad, it remains imperative that the countries of the region are inducted into the fold of the growing economic activities in the region.
In an era of sea-borne globalisation, strengthening cooperation in fostering resilience in the regional ports architecture will remain an important pillar in harnessing shared opportunities in the Indo-Pacific. Additionally, this initiative also appears to be aligning with the Quad’s mandate of emerging as a force for global good. In his remarks at the Wilmington Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi articulated a benign vision for the Quad, one that seeks to be a force for global good and not poised against anything. The crafting of such a vision is critical given the manifest competing efforts that are underway in the Indo-Pacific to consolidate geopolitical influence and strategic positioning. For the Quad, the mandate appears to be clear-deliver global goods to resident countries, and facilitate a greater degree of involvement of non-resident countries in the region. Through this, the group seeks to galvanise the geoeconomic potential of the region by harnessing the capabilities of resident countries.
Strengthening maritime connectivity by way of aiding efforts to build a robust ports architecture is a vital step in heralding a cohesive and resilient strategic architecture in the region. Other similar initiatives undertaken by the Quad, in the realm of maritime domain awareness and HADR, are vital steps to complement efforts to build a sound ports infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific. Cooperation in this domain is a global good, crucial for the Quad to strengthen a resilient Indo-Pacific geoeconomic space and to realise its vision of serving as a force for global good. While this initiative appears to have set in motion an important building block for the Quad, it is critical to continue to view this domain of cooperation as a facilitator of global cooperation with emphasis on countries and stakeholders in the region.
Sayantan Haldar is a Research Assistant, Strategic Studies Programme, Observer Research Foundation.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
