* Quad group consisting of Japan, India, Australia and the United States. Quad is not an alliance but a grouping of nations which are interested in strengthening a rule-based order in the region of Indo-Pacific. * The four countries had in the year 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of forming up the "Quad" or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region. * The idea behind QUAD was first conceptualised by the then Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in 2007. * QUAD has been revitaziled as a group of democracies coming together to uphold peace, freedom and rule-based order in the face of a belligerent China.