Australia, India, Japan and the US have completed a tabletop exercise in Tokyo to advance the Quad’s disaster-response logistics network.
Australia, India, Japan and the United States have completed a tabletop exercise in Tokyo to take forward the Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network (IPLN). India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the four countries had made significant progress on standard operating procedures that will give the network an institutional framework.
Hosted by Japan’s Ministry of Defense on September 3 and 4, the exercise was built around natural-disaster scenarios and examined how the four partners could pool existing logistics capabilities while strengthening interoperability and coordination. It followed the first IPLN tabletop exercise held in Hawaii in April last year and a field training exercise in Guam in December. The four countries also discussed coordination of relief work during crises and emergencies, and offered condolences to those affected by recent floods. The IPLN was unveiled at the Quad leaders’ summit in September 2024 as a civilian initiative drawing on the four countries’ existing logistics assets for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
The Tokyo exercise took place a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping in New Delhi on the margins of the BRICS summit, marking Xi’s first visit to India in seven years. Modi said peace and tranquillity on the border was fundamental to restoring normalcy in the relationship and stressed the need to adhere to existing agreements and understandings, while Beijing called for parallel progress, arguing that cooperation should proceed alongside efforts to settle the boundary question. Both sides referred to existing mechanisms, including the 25th round of Special Representatives’ talks on August 25 and senior commander-level flag meetings on September 6 and 7.
The Quad maintains that it is not a military alliance, with its work covering maritime security, critical and emerging technologies and humanitarian assistance, a characterisation that contrasts with Beijing’s repeated description of the grouping as an exclusive bloc built for containment, which New Delhi rejects.
The Tokyo drill coincided with a series of separate defence engagements between India and other Quad members. The Indian Air Force and the Japan Air Self-Defence Force are conducting Veer Guardian-2026 at Jodhpur from September 9 to 22, with Tejas, Su-30MKI and Rafale jets operating alongside Japanese F-2As, marking the first time JASDF fighters have flown from an Indian airbase. The 22nd edition of Yudh Abhyas is running simultaneously, involving Arctic-trained soldiers from the US Army’s 11th Airborne Division and its 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force at high-altitude locations until September 28. Navy Chief Admiral Krishna Swaminathan met senior Australian military leaders from September 9 to 11 before travelling to New Zealand.
Separately, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh met Vietnamese Deputy Defence Minister Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Truong Thang on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, with both sides agreeing to accelerate technology sharing and defence industrial cooperation, weeks after India and Vietnam advanced their BrahMos coastal-defence missile contract.
Source: The New Indian Express
