India is expected to host the next Quad summit, though the schedule is yet to be finalised
New Delhi: India on Friday announced that external affairs minister S. Jaishankar will chair the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting on May 26 in the national capital. US secretary of state Marco Rubio, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi will join Jaishankar at the India-hosted meeting on Tuesday and will deliberate on the fallout of the West Asia crisis and the prevailing situation in the Indo-Pacific.
According to the statement issued by New Delhi, Rubio, Wong, and Motegi, during their India visit, are also expected to hold bilateral meetings with Jaishankar and call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India is expected to host the next Quad summit, though the schedule is yet to be finalised. It was to take place last year, but a perceived disinterest on the part of US President Donald Trump in the Quad due to his administration's outreach to Beijing and also deterioration of bilateral ties then between India and the United States due to the imposition last year of steep tariffs and penalties for buying Russian oil on India by the US are seen to have played a role in delaying the summit.
The US secretary of state, however, is seen to be a keen advocate of the Quad and hosted a ministerial-level meeting in Washington just hours after he had assumed office way back in January last year.
