New Delhi: India is likely to host the Quad Leaders’ Summit around Republic Day next year, but no dates have been fixed yet because all depends on the availability of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, ThePrint has learnt.
The four nations part of the Quad are Australia, India, Japan and the US.
Government sources told ThePrint that invites have been sent out to US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to be chief guests at India’s Republic Day parade on 26 January. Confirmations for such invites usually come just a month ahead of the event, sources said, adding that invites are sent out after preliminary discussions.
If Biden does accept the invitation, he will be the second US president to be chief guest at the event after Barack Obama in 2015. It will also be Biden’s second visit to India after his first for the G20 Summit last month.
The late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first from his country to be chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade in 2014. He had been invited by the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Republic Day chief guests are chosen after careful consideration and the invite showcases India’s close friends and partners, besides strategic interests.
It is also learnt that the dates being looked at for the Quad meeting are either 25 January or 27 January, 2024.
Inviting all Quad leaders as Republic Day guests was not possible because Australia observes its national day on 26 January as well, added sources.
“The Australian PM has to attend his national day and hence he can’t of course be invited as the chief guest for (India’s) Republic Day along with the others. The final Quad (Summit) date will depend on the availability of PM Anthony Albanese,” a source said.
The Quad meeting to be held in India was mentioned in a joint statement issued by the US and Australia after Biden and Albanese met in Washington Wednesday. “The United States applauds the success of Australia hosting the 2023 Quad Leaders’ Summit in Hiroshima and we look forward to the next Quad Leaders’ Summit being held in India,” it read.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier announced that India would host the Quad summit in 2024.
The Quad is an important grouping that came into being in 2017. The four countries part of it — India, US, Australia and Japan — have at multiple times stressed that it is not a military grouping.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had said in July that he was very optimistic about the future of the Quad as the new way of working (of the grouping) was more flexible and open-minded.
Both Russia and China have been critical of the Quad and see it as a grouping directed at Beijing.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, during his visit to New Delhi this April for Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers’ meet, had hit out at the US and multilateral groupings like Quad while putting his weight behind China.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Russian defence minister hits out at US & Quad, backs China at SCO meet hosted by India