Explanation:

• “The United States, through the DFC (US International Development Finance Corporation, will work with Biological E Ltd., to finance increased capacity to support Biological E’s effort to produce at least 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022 with Stringent Regulatory Authorization (SRA) and/or World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL), including the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” said the fact sheet jointly released after President Biden met with PMs Modi, Morrison and Suga on Friday in a virtual conference. In addition, Japanese development aid agency JICA would provide concessional loans for the effort.

• Origins of the Quad

  The beginning of the Quad as a grouping of the United States, Japan, India, and Australia can be found in the so-called “Tsunami Core Group,” an ad-hoc grouping that sprang up to respond to the devastating Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.The Core Group, a “new type of diplomacy” that created a new network in the face of an emerging challenge, brought together the four nations best equipped to swiftly mobilize tsunami aid.Though the group disbanded as the recovery effort wound down, the quadrilateral template had established a successful track record as a vehicle for addressing issues of regional concern.

• The Malabar exercise started in 1992 as a bilateral drill between the Indian Navy and the U.S. Navy in the Indian Ocean.
  Japan became a permanent member of the exercise in 2015. This annual exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in 2018 and off the coast of Japan in 2019.
  Last year, the exercise was hosted in two phases in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.
  The Quad countries — India, the U.S., Australia and Japan — will conduct the next edition of the high-voltage Malabar naval exercise from August 26 to 29 off the coast of Guam in the face of China’s growing military muscle-flexing in the Indo-Pacific.

• Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) is the informal strategic dialogue between India, USA, Japan and Australia with a shared objective to ensure and support a “free, open and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region. The idea of Quad was first mooted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007.