The U.S., Japan, Australia and India are working to preserve the balance of power in the Asia Pacific. But that could aggravate the world's second-largest economy, potentially triggering a greater Chinese military presence around the region.
That result became more likely after officials from the four democracies held discussions on upholding freedom of navigation, terrorism, connectivity and maritime security in Asia on the sidelines of a November ASEAN Summit.
The meeting, dubbed the "Australia-India-Japan-United States consultations on the Indo-Pacific," was widely viewed as a resurgence of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — or "Quad" — an informal security forum consisting of the same four countries that launched in 2007 but eventually fell apart.
The revived Quad comes as President Donald Trump's administration centers its Asia strategy around a "free and open Indo-Pacific," a term used as a replacement for the more widely used "Asia Pacific" label.
