Growth of Quad testimony to vision of leaders of 4 nations: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said the growth of the Quad alliance over the last five years was a testimony to the creativity and the farsightedness of the leaders of the four countries.

"Quad is very interesting because the other three are treaty allies. For three treaty allies to work with a non-treaty country is a novel experience for us as it is for them. We all having to change as we go along," Jaishankar said at the Global Technology Summit.

Jaishankar was referring to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty of which India is not a signatory.

The 'Quadrilateral Security Dialogue' (QSD) or the Quad is an informal strategic forum comprising four nations -- the United States, India, Australia and Japan.

The group had first met in 2007 on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, but went into cold storage after protests from China. It was revived in 2017 in the face of China's growing assertiveness in world affairs with the first official talks taking place in the Philippines.

"We too have to sometimes revisit our assumptions to figure out how this works. The fact that the Quad has grown so much in the last five years is a testimony to the creativity and farsightedness of the people in these four countries over the last five years," Jaishankar said.