Dismissed as "ocean foam" not too long ago by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, it is interesting to see how quickly the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, has begun to take concrete shape. Last week, Quad leaders - United States President Joe Biden, and prime ministers Yoshihide Suga of Japan, Scott Morrison of Australia and Narendra Modi of India - met for their first-ever in-person summit in the East Room of the White House. That the meeting took place just six months after the four leaders held a summit by videoconference underscores their seriousness of purpose and the attention, welcome or otherwise, that the region increasingly referred to as the Indo-Pacific has been getting lately.

The Quad's origins lie in the burst of cooperation between the militaries of the US and other regional powers to help civilian populations in the wake of the December 2004 South-east Asian tsunami whose ripples were felt as far away as Africa's eastern coast. China's assertiveness, its announcement of the nine-dash line in the South China Sea and air defence identification zone in the East China Sea, and its proclivity to impose trade sanctions on smaller nations which it views as challenging its dominance, had also stoked fears that it may some day wall off the seas that envelop South-east Asia. Hence, the Quad's emphasis on a "free and open" Indo-Pacific and commitment to freedom of navigation.