That idea has actually been promoted for years by US think tank Atlantic Council, which initiated a D-10 Strategy Forum in 2014. The think tank coordinates annual D-10 meetings that are hosted by the foreign ministries of participating D-10 countries. Last year's meeting was held in Berlin, and this year's meeting will be held virtually.
Separately, the Atlantic Council also convenes the D-10 Ambassadors Roundtable, which brings together Washington, DC-based ambassadors for a regular series of consultations on global challenges.
It is important to note that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) gave more than $1 million to Atlantic Council in 2018, the latest year for which contribution data is available.
A spokesman for the think tank said that the grant from the UK is for its work on disinformation via its Digital Forensic Research Laboratory. Atlantic Council also received $3,000 from the FCO in 2019 to support its work for the UK-hosted NATO policy planning talks.
Here is more from Foreign Policy:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been actively considering the right idea: consolidating a new D-10 group of 10 leading democracies (the current G-7 members, plus South Korea, India, and Australia) for addressing both 5G mobile communications and vulnerable supply chains. While the idea behind a D-10 is not a novel one—a group organized by the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington has been promoting it for years with regular working-level meetings between officials—it has a new impetus amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Ash Jain, a Senior Fellow with the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, oversees the Atlantic Council's Democratic Order Initiative and D-10 Strategy Forum.
Atlantic Council notes that the D-10 construct has its origins in a US State Department policy planning staff initiative launched in 2008.
