U.S. to hold high-level talks with Australia, Japan and India

Wow, this is the first time I’ve heard of this “quad” security partnership. I mean, I knew that all these countries were US allies, I just never heard that phrase before. Has anyone else? Or is this really just a new term that they made up recently?

Yep. It's fairly new but the Quad members have been conducting annual naval exercises. There was some initial reluctance to include the Japanese but with China's increasing threats to the Senkakus and Okinawa and Japan's considerable naval prowess their inclusion was natural.

The "Quad" name and concept has been around for years. Not heavily published but still in the public domain.

It was born, then off for a while and now on again.

Wow, this is the first time I’ve heard of this “quad” security partnership. I mean, I knew that all these countries were US allies, I just never heard that phrase before. Has anyone else? Or is this really just a new term that they made up recently?

Should include Taiwan as well. That will rile up the commies for sure.