New York– External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is set to participate in a meeting of Quad foreign ministers in Washington next week, ahead of the upcoming Quad leaders’ summit India is scheduled to host later this year, the U.S. State Department confirmed on Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host the meeting on Tuesday, which will also include Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi, said Principal Deputy Spokesperson Thomas Pigott.
Pigott noted that the meeting continues Rubio’s diplomatic momentum, as his first engagement after taking office on January 21 was also a Quad foreign ministers’ gathering, held one day after President Donald Trump was inaugurated.
“This meeting builds on that momentum to advance a free, open, and secure Indo-Pacific,” Pigott said. “This is what American leadership looks like: strength, peace, and prosperity.”
In preparation for the meeting, Jaishankar noted on X (formerly Twitter) that he had held a phone conversation with Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
Before heading to Washington, Jaishankar will inaugurate an exhibition titled The Human Cost of Terrorism at the United Nations on Monday. According to India’s UN Mission, the exhibit is intended to highlight the global toll of terrorist acts and will open a day before Pakistan assumes the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council.
This will be the first in-person meeting of Quad foreign ministers since the Pahalgam terror attack in India. It is expected to serve as a key preparatory step for the leaders’ summit, which will bring together Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
During a previous meeting in February, PM Modi had expressed his eagerness to host President Trump at the summit.
The renewed focus on the Indo-Pacific follows a relative cooling of international attention on the Middle East and Ukraine, as tensions between Israel and Iran appear to have subsided. The Quad alliance, seen as a strategic counterweight to China’s growing influence in the region, remains central to regional security discussions. (Source: IANS)
