New Delhi: India is unlikely to host the pending Quad Leaders’ Summit later this year and is set to pass on the baton to Australia following the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting Tuesday, ThePrint has learnt. Government and diplomatic sources cited growing difficulties in aligning the schedules of leaders of all four member countries—India, the US, Japan and Australia—as the reason New Delhi won’t host the Quad Leaders’ Summit this year.
Sources told ThePrint that evolving domestic political calendars and global developments have made it increasingly difficult for all four heads of government to meet physically at one location each year.
India has held the Quad chair since 2024 and was expected to host the Leaders’ Summit later that year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced in 2023 that India would host the next Leaders’ Summit the following year. The Leaders’ Summit was initially planned for 27 January 2024, a day after Republic Day celebrations, with then US President Joe Biden and then Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expected as chief guests.
However, bringing together all Quad leaders as chief guests for Republic Day was complicated by the fact that Australia celebrates its national day on 26 January as well.
The plan eventually fell through after Biden declined the Republic Day invitation, leading to the postponement of the Leaders’ Summit. Then, in June 2024, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India would host the Quad Leaders’ Summit later that year.
But, Biden subsequently pushed for hosting the summit in Wilmington, his hometown, toward the end of his presidency. As a result, the Leaders’ Summit took place in the US in September 2024 even though India continued to hold the chair.
India retained the chairmanship but was unable to organise a summit in 2025 amid Operation Sindoor and growing tensions with the Trump administration over tariffs. “It set a difficult precedent to expect all four leaders to gather in one country every year despite domestic and global compulsions,” a source said.
Adding, “It is not unusual in multilateral groupings for deputy leaders, vice presidents or foreign ministers to represent countries when top leaders are unable to attend.”
Diplomatic sources insisted that the absence of a Leaders’ Summit does not diminish the importance of the Quad. They pointed to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to New Delhi for the Foreign Ministers’ meeting, his longest foreign visit so far, as evidence of Washington’s continued commitment to the grouping.
Another source said the Quad Leaders’ Summit could take place on the sidelines of major multilateral gatherings rather than as a standalone annual event.
The first Quad Leaders’ Summit was held virtually on 12 March 2021, followed by the first in-person meeting in Washington on 24 September that year.
The third summit took place virtually on 3 March, 2022, followed by an in-person meeting in Tokyo on 24 May, 2022.
Another in-person summit was held in Hiroshima on 20 May, 2023, followed by the Wilmington summit on 21 September, 2024.
The Quad, revived in 2017, has consistently maintained that it is not a military alliance. However, the grouping has steadily acquired a sharper strategic orientation amid China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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