Australia, India, Japan and the United States have taken another step towards strengthening regional disaster response through the Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network (IPLN).

The four Quad partners conducted a Tabletop Exercise (TTX) in Tokyo on September 3 and 4, focusing on how their shared logistics capabilities could be used to improve civilian responses to large-scale natural disasters across the Indo-Pacific.

Hosted by Japan’s Ministry of Defence, the exercise built on an inaugural IPLN tabletop exercise held in Hawai‘i in April 2025 and a field training exercise in Guam in December 2025.

The Tokyo exercise examined natural disaster scenarios and how the four countries could improve interoperability, streamline coordination and make better use of their respective logistics capabilities.

The partners also made progress towards developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the IPLN, which are intended to provide an institutional framework for putting the network into operation.

The Quad countries expressed condolences to communities affected by recent devastating floods and discussed ways to better coordinate humanitarian assistance and relief operations during future crises and emergencies.

The IPLN is designed to allow the four countries to leverage their combined logistics capabilities to support civilian disaster response more rapidly and efficiently across the Indo-Pacific.

The initiative aims to help save lives, accelerate recovery and provide support to regional partners affected by large-scale natural disasters.

The four countries said they would continue efforts to operationalise the network through further tabletop and field exercises, confidence-building measures and exchanges between technical experts.

Support our Journalism

No-nonsense journalism. No paywalls. Whether you’re in Australia, the UK, Canada, the USA, or India, you can support The Australia Today by taking a paid subscription via Patreon or donating via PayPal — and help keep honest, fearless journalism alive.