New Delhi: Ahead of a possible leaders’ summit of the Quad next month, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is heading to Atlanta in the US to attend the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the grouping as well as the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
“The External Affairs Minister will be attending the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to be held in Atlanta, US, from 30-31 October 2026. On the sidelines of it, he will also participate in a Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and have several bilateral engagements with his counterparts,” Randhir Jaiswal, official spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs said at a regular press briefing Wednesday.
This is the second Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to be held this year. The meeting in Atlanta of the foreign ministers from India, the US, Japan and Australia is expected to take stock of the workings of the grouping ahead of a likely leaders’ summit to be hosted by the US in the Philippines next month.
The likely summit at the leaders level will be the first in two years. The Quad, as a grouping, was revitalised during President Donald J. Trump’s first term, and was raised to a leadership level by President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Since Trump’s return to the White House, no leaders-level summit has been held. At least three editions of the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting have been held, including in New Delhi. India is the current chair of the grouping.
If the leaders’ summit is held in Manila, on the margins of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit and related mechanisms, it will likely be chaired by the US.
Sources confirmed all four governments are discussing the possibility of a summit in Manila on the margins of ASEAN-related summits. The grouping is perceived to have seen a change in status since Trump’s return to the White House.
Viewed by some as a grouping to project power across the Indo-Pacific region, keeping an eye on China, Trump and the US, has instead focused on establishing better ties with Beijing.
The US President made a visit to Beijing earlier this year for a summit, and is likely to travel to Shenzhen for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit next month. The US has been keen to establish a situation of “strategic stability” with China, with Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, stating last week, while in Mumbai, that a trade war between the largest two global economies was “detrimental” to everyone.
For India, the likely summit in Manila would be the second instance of a leaders’ meeting under its chairship to be hosted by the US. India was originally to chair the 2024 summit, but at the request of the Biden White House, allowed the leaders’ meeting to be held in Wilmington, Delaware, the hometown of the then American President.
The expected Jaishankar-Rubio interaction in the US will be the second between the two officials this month. The US Secretary of State travelled to Mumbai and Jamnagar last week and met Jaishankar, as Washington seeks closer economic engagement with Indian firms. The visit to Jamnagar also saw Rubio visit the oil refinery operated by Reliance, which is the world’s largest single-site refinery.
Following the G20 and Quad meetings in Georgia, Jaishankar is set to travel to Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Jaishankar will be leading the Indian delegation to St John’s, for the meeting that is scheduled to be held between 1 and 4 November.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)