New Delhi: India is likely to hold the next foreign ministers’ meeting of the Quad in the last week of May, during US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s planned travel to the national capital, ThePrint has learnt.
People familiar with the matter confirmed to ThePrint that the other two members of the Quad—Japan and Australia—are looking at the dates proposed, in the last week of May. While the Japanese foreign ministry has indicated that the dates should work, India is waiting on Australia to confirm whether its foreign minister Penny Wong would be able to travel to India during that time period for the foreign ministers’ meeting.
The likely foreign ministers’ meeting comes amidst a changed security situation across the Indo-Pacific, partly due to the conflict in West Asia.
The 40-day war between the US-Israel and Iran has seen the regional maritime security situation change for India, as Tehran continues to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz. The US imposed a naval blockade on Iran Monday, in an attempt to force the reopening of free navigation across the global waterway, which accounts for a fifth of the global energy supply.
If held, it would be the first foreign ministers’ meeting of the minilateral since July 2025, when the four foreign ministers met in Washington D.C.
The Quad, which consists of Australia, Japan, the US and India has not held a leaders’ meeting since 2024, when all four leaders met in Wilmington, Delaware.
The 2024 leaders’ meeting was scheduled to be held in India, before New Delhi agreed to Biden’s request to have the meeting held in his home state, as it would be the last meeting convened during his presidency.
US President Donald J. Trump assumed power in January 2025, following which no Quad leaders’ meeting has been held.
However, one of the first official interactions of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in January 2025 was to convene a Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in Washington on 21 January 2025.
The minilateral has seen a number of challenges, especially as ties between India and the US faced headwinds for the better part of 2025 due to Trump’s tariffs and the American pressure on New Delhi to curtail Russian oil purchases.
However, India and the US struck an interim trade deal in February 2026, which paved the way for an improvement in ties, with a number of high-level exchanges taking place between the two administrations since.
Rubio’s visit to India was announced by US Ambassador Sergio Gor last week, after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met the American Secretary of State in Washington. Misri was on a three-day visit to the US, and met with a number of senior officials including Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
Rubio’s maiden visit to India is set to occur in the backdrop of the regional conflict in West Asia. India has maintained a tightrope, without condemning the original US and Israel strikes on Iran, while calling on all parties to de-escalate and find a diplomatic solution to end the conflict.
India, however, condemned all attacks on civilian infrastructure made by all parties.
The last Quad foreign ministers’ meeting reset the focus of the minilateral, with an agenda built around four key areas—maritime and transnational security, economic prosperity and security, critical and emerging technologies and humanitarian assistance and emergency response.
The four foreign ministers also launched three initiatives, including the Quad Criticals Minerals Initiative, conduct of the first Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network field training exercise and the Quad Ports of the Future Partnership.
India hosted the first Quad Ports of the Future conference late last year. While a number of activities between the four countries has continued at the bureaucratic level, at the highest of political levels, Quad has found less traction than in earlier years.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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