Quad members eye next Leaders’ Summit in September

India was slated to host the Quad Summit in 2024, but it was swapped with the US, as Biden was unable to travel due to the 2024 US presidential election.

The members of the Quad are exploring the possibility of holding the next leaders’ summit, which will be hosted by India, in September next year , people familiar with the matter said.

PM Narendra Modi with US President Joe Biden, Australian PM Anthony Albanese and Japan’s former PM Fumio Kishida ahead of the Quad Leaders’ Summit, at Wilmington in September.(HT_PRINT)

The gathering at next year’s Quad Leaders’ Summit will be different from that at the meet hosted in September by US President Joe Biden – the US and Japan have new leaders and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has seen his approval ratings dip ahead of the federal election in 2025.

Among the factors responsible for the members of Quad looking at the possibility of holding the summit in the third quarter of 2025 are the general election in Australia, which is likely to be held in April or May, and the time needed for the Donald Trump administration in the US to settle down following the president’s inauguration in January, the people from three members of the grouping added.

“The new US administration will most likely focus on domestic issues in its initial days before taking up foreign policy matters after it settles down. Besides, the second quarter – when the Indian summer is at its peak – is not really conducive to the holding of the summit,” said a diplomat from a Quad member who asked not to be named.

In Australia, the focus of the government has already begun shifting to the upcoming general election, especially with approval ratings for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Australian Labour Party registering a dip in recent months. The Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton of the Liberal Party, has been catching up in the ratings.

Given Australia’s tradition of holding the general election along with elections to select half the members of the Senate, the polls are expected to be held by April or May, one of the people cited above said. “This will be followed by the process of the government being formed and settling down in office, which means the Quad Summit won’t exactly be in focus,” the person said.

In Japan, next year’s session of the Diet or the Parliament, is expected to begin on January 24 and run till June 22. Elections for the upper chamber of the Diet are likely to be held in July. Another factor for looking for dates in September is that Japan’s premier usually doesn’t travel abroad when the Parliament is in session, the people said.

India was earlier slated to host the Quad Summit in 2024, but it was swapped with the US because of Biden’s inability to travel abroad due to his focus on the presidential election. The Quad leaders – Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Biden, Albanese and Japan’s former premier Fumio Kishida – met for the summit in the US president’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, ahead of the UN General Assembly.

However, the people said the Quad’s various working groups are continuing their preparations for the summit, including deliverables that can be unveiled by the four leaders. This year’s summit saw the four countries unveiling a cancer moonshot, with the focus on combating cervical cancer in the Indo-Pacific, and exploring investments in health and food security, clean energy and quality infrastructure.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar recently said Trump is unlikely to diminish support for the Quad as his earlier administration played a key role in upgrading the grouping. However, Ian Hall, professor of international relations at Griffith University, wrote in a recent article that this history and the level of trust among officials involved in the Quad doesn’t ensure that the grouping will survive or prosper during the second Trump administration. “Trump is likely to ask how much the minilateral costs the US and what it delivers, not in terms of public goods provided to others but tangible gains for American interests,” Hall wrote.

The Quad also decided to build on its 2022 Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness by using electro-optical data and advanced analytics to sharpen the maritime domain awareness for partners across the Indo-Pacific.