Quad is a group comprising India, the US, Australia and Japan, which was revived with a boost from the administration of former President Donald Trump in 2017 as a bulwark of democracies against China’s growing aggression in the region. January’s conversation comes after National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval also in January and discussed continuing close co-operation in the Indo-Pacific region and promoting regional security, according to the White House.

Earlier, Blinken had told the Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing that there would be a continuity in US relations with India which grew under the previous administration. The US would continue “to make sure we were working with India so that no country in the region including China could challenge its sovereignty and also working with it on concerns that we share about terrorism”, he said.