Northlines Lt. Gen Prakash Katoch India, Australia, Japan, and the US held their third Quad ministerial meeting on February 18 to discuss ways to enhance cooperation for maintaining a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific in the face of China’s growing aggression in the region. This was the third meeting of Quad Foreign Ministers, after September 2019 and October 2020, since the mechanism at the level of officials was revived in 2017. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar participated in the virtual meeting along with his counterparts from the US, Japan and Australia. This was the first such meeting of Quad member countries after the Joe Biden administration took charge in Washington.