The four foreign ministers of the QUAD nations, Australia, the United States, India, and Japan, met on Feb. 11 in Melbourne for the fourth iteration of the talks. High on the agenda are issues like regional security—including Russia, China, and North Korea—economic engagement, new technologies, climate change, humanitarian issues, and the response to COVID-19. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison joined a brief press appearance before the meeting got underway, welcoming U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and Japan’s Yoshimasa Hayashi. Morrison praised the dialogue as a source of support in a world that is “very fragile, fragmented, and contested.” “I’m reassured by our perspective, I’m reassured by the understanding shared by each other, I’m reassured by the incredibly strong support that Australia has received from QUAD partners,” he told reporters, referencing the economic coercion campaign launched by Beijing against …