By Sarah Cope | 2025-10-16

Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) countries and Indo-Pacific allies such as South Korea are working to advance initiatives that rely on space capabilities in the military, civil and commercial spheres, despite some underlying tensions.

The Quad countries -- India, Japan, Australia and the United States -- are among the world’s scientific leaders, including in space, according to Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In September 2021, the four nations began their space cooperation with the Quad Space Working Group, sharing satellite data for peaceful purposes including disaster response and preparedness.

In 2022, they agreed to improve public access to Earth-observation satellite data by opening a Quad Satellite Data Portal that aggregates links to respective national satellite data resources, Space News reported.

They pledged to "work together to develop space applications, including in the area of Earth observations, and provide capacity building support to countries in the region, including with regards to partnering on using space capabilities."

The space domain is becoming increasingly central to maritime and overall security in the Indo-Pacific region, with surveillance, communications and monitoring supporting shared objectives.

"The world’s oceans are witnessing a continuous growth in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing," according to a June report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"Chinese fishing fleets, in particular, are emerging as a significant threat contributing to this global challenge."

The Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, launched in 2022 at the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Tokyo, uses satellites to help track illegal fishing and other unlawful activity across the region’s waterways.

Satellite monitoring helps to maintain the security of the region's energy supply, experts say, noting that an estimated 76% of total world petroleum and other energy products were transported by sea in 2023 alone.

Quad countries and Indo-Pacific partners also are pooling data and technology to monitor satellites and debris in orbit, reducing the risk of collision.

Increasing risk of conflict

The Quad remains a critical counterbalance to China’s rising influence in the Indo-Pacific, even amid recent tensions between India and the United States, experts say.

In a sign of the importance of the Quad relationships to the United States, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted a Quad meeting as his first diplomatic engagement after taking office on January 21, and again on July 1.

In June, two US Senators introduced a bipartisan bill to strengthen space cooperation among Quad nations, Space and Defense reported.

"As China and Russia rapidly develop dangerous space capabilities and behave recklessly in space, the US must bolster cooperation with our Quad partners to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific," said US Senator Michael Bennet.

According to a new report published by the Hoover Institution’s Global Policy and Strategy Initiative, "the risk of major power conflict in the Indo-Pacific is increasing," visiting fellow Arzan Tarapore said during a panel discussion.

That can be largely attributed to "the increasing military modernization of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), but also, critically, the increasingly aggressive behavior of China," he said.

"India has clearly acknowledged China as the number one national security threat," Australian Strategic Policy Institute resident senior fellow Raji Rajagopalan said during a September 30 panel discussion.

"India has also come to recognize that its options are limited," she said, noting that the United States and US-related allied partnerships "are very very critical in managing China in a sense."

"India and the other Quad countries, we are all a group of democracies," she added. "We are messy. We are loud, messy, confusing, chaotic democracies."

"From time to time, there are going to be these turbulent phases that we will go through. But that is a temporary phase."

Deepening cooperation

Australia has deepened its cooperation with the United States through exercises such as Resolute Space 25, the US Space Force’s largest service-wide exercise.

In May, US Space Force leaders joined the Australian Space Summit to discuss regional collaboration. Australia also is contributing to NASA’s Artemis program, with the Australian Space Agency developing a lunar rover.

Japan continues to be a core Artemis partner, and a Japanese astronaut joined the Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

In February, Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite 6 carried a US space domain awareness payload, marking the first national security-focused cooperative space effort between the two countries.

Meanwhile, India has expanded collaboration under the TRUST initiative, with two Indian astronauts joining the Axiom-4 mission to the ISS.

The joint NASA-ISRO NISAR satellite, launched this year, will track changes to Earth’s surface, while the INDUS Innovation Bridge, launched in February, is linking the US and Indian private space industries.

In January, South Korea hosted Polaris Hammer-Korea, a joint command-and-control exercise with the US Space Force. Discussions continue on potential trilateral space collaboration with Japan and the United States.