The Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (QFMM) is a high-level diplomatic mechanism within the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), an informal strategic forum comprising India, the US, Australia, and Japan. Its primary objective is to ensure and support a "free, open, and prosperous" Indo-Pacific region.
The Quad's origins trace back to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, where the four nations first coordinated humanitarian assistance. The dialogue was formally proposed in 2007 by then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but it went dormant until its resurrection in 2017. The QFMM has been held at least annually since 2019, signifying the elevation and institutionalization of the dialogue.
The QFMM functions as a platform for the Foreign Ministers to align strategic perspectives and deepen cooperation across four key pillars: maritime and transnational security, economic prosperity and security, critical and emerging technologies, and humanitarian assistance and emergency response. A core mechanism is the issuance of a Joint Statement and the launch of concrete initiatives.
The Quad connects to the broader concept of a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" (FOIP) and is linked to the annual multilateral naval exercise, Malabar Exercise. The ministers emphasize adherence to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for maintaining navigational rights.
The 11th Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi on May 26, 2026, saw the launch of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration (IPMSC) initiative and the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative Framework to strengthen supply chains. This meeting also announced the Quad Initiative on Indo-Pacific Energy Security and a commitment to advance port infrastructure in Fiji, demonstrating the Quad's expanding agenda beyond traditional security to include economic and infrastructure cooperation.