US Deputy Secretary of State, Stephen E Biegun on Tuesday said that Quad should become more regularised and formalised. Biegun's statement comes after India amid the Sino-India border row announced Australia's participation in the upcoming Malabar exercise along with the US and Japan, effectively making it the first military-level engagement between the four-member nation grouping — the Quad.

The Malabar exercise was started in 1992 as a bilateral drill between the Indian Navy and the US Navy in the Indian Ocean. This annual exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea in 2018 and off the coast of Japan in 2019. Japan joined the drill in 2015 as a permanent member, now with Australia joining the group, the message sent to China is evident.

China has been suspicious about the purpose of the Malabar exercise as it feels that the annual war game is an effort to contain its influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Responding to this development, China said it had taken note of the recent developments while underlining that military cooperation should be conducive to regional peace and stability.

Biegun in his telephonic briefing with journalists from India and Afghanistan said that it is our view, over time, the Quad should become more regularised and at some point, formalised as well, as we begin to understand what the parameters of this cooperation are and how we can regularise it.

However, analysts are unsure if the Quad will continue to be strengthened if a change of guard happens in the US. The Trump regime has on several occasions pointed out how his challenger Joe Biden is soft towards China.

With a foreign policy team largely recruited from Obama's administration, chances are, Biden might dial America back from Trump's hawkish's stance.