The Quad-at-Sea mission marks a strategic shift—advancing Indo-Pacific maritime governance through operational coast guard cooperation, not militarisation.
Image Source: HUNG CHIN LIU/via Getty images
Given the need to strengthen interoperability among member countries and enhance maritime security in the Indo-Pacific, the Quad Leaders’ Summit in September 2024 announced a first-of-its-kind coast guard cooperation initiative. On 30 June 2025, the Quad nations launched the inaugural ‘Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission’. This marks a measured yet significant step towards operationalising maritime cooperation by deploying two officers each from the coast guard services of India, Australia, and Japan aboard the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Stratton, currently en route to Guam. While cooperation among coast guard services often remains peripheral in the broader discourse of maritime cooperation, these services play a critical role in fostering operational synergy and upholding maritime order.
With the launch of the Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission, the Wilmington Declaration—an outcome statement of the Quad Leaders’ Summit in 2024—serves as the formal foundation for this initiative. The Coast Guard's cooperation mission aligns with the vision of the Quad Leaders’ summit in September 2024 by enhancing interoperability and future missions in the Indo-Pacific. In light of the ongoing deliberations around the securitisation of the Quad and the Indo-Pacific region, it is important to highlight the nature of this initiative: the Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer mission is grounded in policing functions typical of coast guards, rather than framing and deploying them as an outright military fleet. The Mission strives for shared security, regional resilience, and collective preparedness against security threats in the region. Rather than being a military or combat deployment, the initiative reinforces maritime security and operational cohesion between member states to help maintain peace and stability in regional waters.
This initiative poses itself not as a military or combat mission, but one that strengthens maritime security and operational cohesion between member states to sustain peace and stability in the oceans.
This approach also resonates with broader regional visions, such as SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI), both of which emphasise collective action, capacity building, and disaster risk reduction. This initiative underscores the strategic value of coast guards within the Quad, particularly their role in policing and protecting the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific maritime theatre.
Coast guard services have long been central to maritime governance in the Indo-Pacific and have played a critical role in shaping Indo-Pacific security as seen in the South China Sea (SCS). The SCS has emerged as a strategic laboratory of Chinese belligerence, making the coast guard an integral tool in retaining power and gaining strategic advances while avoiding escalation. With China’s recent coast guard regulations and promulgation of China Coast Guard Order #3 (2024), the threat of armed confrontation in the South China Sea with states such as the Philippines has grown. One recent example is the collision between a Chinese coast guard vessel and a Philippine navy ship, where the Chinese personnel reportedly used machetes, axes, and hammers.
In response to rising tensions, the Quad has explicitly condemned the aggressive use of coast guard and maritime militia vessels. Due to the lack of militarisation, the coast guard’s mandate is limited to law enforcement in the Indo-Pacific. However, China’s growing control over fisheries and the engagement of Chinese coast guards in Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing have attracted the Quad members’ increased attention and focus in the Indo-Pacific from a coast guard perspective. Their unique role lies in the fact that coast guards are not war-fighting fleets, but are instead involved in Search and Rescue (SAR), Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) policing, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) initiatives and law enforcement. In the Indo-Pacific context, it becomes imperative to consider grey zone coercion and the question of freedom of navigation without military escalation.
New Delhi and Tokyo have long pursued coast guard cooperation to tackle problems such as IUU fishing through memoranda of understanding (MoUs) and joint exercises. Similarly, the US Coast Guard participated in collaborative efforts, as seen in their visit to India in 2022 as part of their Indo-Pacific Mission. Canberra and New Delhi have also engaged in talks to boost cooperation in discussions between the Indian Coast Guard and the Maritime Border Command of the Royal Australian Navy. While the Quad has often been viewed as a primarily diplomatic forum, the Quad-at-Sea mission introduces an element of tangible operational cooperation—offering a practical dimension that avoids overt militarisation or securitisation.
In addition to the observer mission, the Wilmington Declaration also announced the launch of a Quad Maritime Legal Dialogue to uphold a rules-based maritime order in the Indo-Pacific. The combined forces of all four coast guards would collaborate to enforce the norms of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), counter illegal fishing, and safeguard the maritime commons—objectives that have been consistently emphasised in the Quad’s joint statements and are now being translated into concrete operational measures. Existing maritime law, including the UNCLOS and supporting documents, governs the maritime domain; however, there are two shortcomings. One, there is no regional legal architecture in the Indo-Pacific, and there is a scarcity of enforcement mechanisms, propelling traditional and non-traditional maritime security threats in the region. Given that militarisation and the use of armed force are often counterproductive to the objective of maintaining peace, they cannot consistently serve as viable tools of enforcement. This limitation has resulted in a strategic vacuum increasingly filled by coast guards and their policing functions. Joint coast guard operations play a significant role in signalling the Quad members’ investment in regional maritime governance. In the long term, this observer mission has the potential to provide joint responses to security breaches and threats. Therefore, this initiative emphasises that policing the seas is sometimes more relevant than simply posturing or displaying intent in the oceans.
Policing the seas is sometimes more relevant than simply posturing or displaying intent in the seas.
The Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission also sets the stage for the upcoming Quad summit, to be hosted by India later in 2025, positioning the initiative as a preparatory and confidence-building measure. A joint statement issued after the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Washington earlier this month reiterated the members’ deepened commitment and cooperation on maritime legal dialogues and coast guard cooperation. Going forward, the joint coast guard mission could provide for a collaborative approach to upholding the rules-based order and maintaining maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region. With a history of calling for cooperation, this initiative provides the Quad with practicality and credibility by translating diplomatic intent into operational reality.
Sayantan Haldar is a Research Assistant, Strategic Studies Programme, Observer Research Foundation.
Shloak Gupta is a Research Intern, Strategic Studies Programme, Observer Research Foundation.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
Sayantan Haldar is an Associate Fellow with ORF’s Strategic Studies Programme. At ORF, Sayantan’s work is focused on Maritime Studies. He is interested in questions on ...
Read More +
Shloak Gupta is a Research Intern with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation. ...
Read More +
PREV
