The economic fallout of the West Asia crisis, the prevailing security situation in the Indo-Pacific and ways to boost cooperation in critical minerals and technology are expected to top the agenda at a crucial meeting of the Quad foreign ministers on Tuesday.
The New Delhi meeting will be attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi, with external affairs minister S Jaishankar presiding over it.
The Quad, comprising India, the US, Australia and Japan, has emerged as a key grouping largely focusing on peace, security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
India is hosting the meeting in its capacity as the current chair of the coalition.
The meeting comes nearly a year after the Quad foreign ministers met in Washington DC.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) indicated that the Quad's vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific would be the central focus of the deliberations.
The ministers will exchange views on advancing Quad cooperation across priority areas, review progress on ongoing initiatives and reflect on recent developments in the Indo-Pacific region and other international issues of mutual concern, it said last week.
People familiar with the preparations for the meeting said the Quad foreign ministers will deliberate on the pressing global challenges, including the conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia, and will take stock of cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, a region that has been witnessing increasing Chinese assertiveness.
In the last few years, the Quad has rolled out a number of initiatives addressing some of the most pressing needs and challenges of the Indo-Pacific region, including in areas of maritime security, infrastructure and connectivity.
In the last Quad summit held in Wilmington, US, in 2024, top leaders of the grouping unveiled major steps to expand maritime security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
Tuesday's meeting is also likely to set the broad agenda of the Quad summit that is likely to take place in India later this year.
US Secretary of State Rubio, after holding bilateral talks with external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday, described the Quad as an important mechanism.
"Because the Quad is a forum of alignment between four countries which are not just strategically aligned on a bunch of key issues but four countries that have the ability to varying degrees to influence global events on these topics of mutual interest," he said at a media briefing.
The US Secretary of State also responded to a question on whether the Trump administration showed the same commitment and investment in the Quad as the previous US administration.
"I want to remind you that the Quad, actually in the current form, started during President Trump's first administration. And, actually, it picked up then. It has moved on," he said.
Rubio said, looking ahead, the Indo-Pacific is going to become more and more important with the passage of time.
"We were just talking about energy. It'll even become a big energy lifeline. I mean, if you're going to see, for example, a much bigger India-US energy trade or India's energy and general trade with the US, with other countries in the Americas, I can see much more growth, much more trade, much more maritime activity out there," he said.
"So, to me, the work on Quad goes on. And I think two days from now, you will see us on the podium talking about the Quad. And I can assure you, we will have a good, strong story to tell," he said.
At the briefing, Jaishankar also stressed on the importance of the Quad.
"We are doing a lot with each other because we are maritime powers. And I see that growing. And we are doing a lot with each other because we are democratic powers who have a certain way of doing things, who have a certain belief system, who have certain practices," he said.
"We are market economies, we are open societies. We want business to be conducted and life to run on the basis of international law and market practices." "It is very important that the Quad cooperation as maritime democracies continues, and that is exactly what you will see," he added.