Wong, Quad meet in Washington, US signals allies focus
America’s newly-minted Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Quad foreign ministers, including Australia’s Penny Wong, stressing allied relations.
Rubio, who was sworn in as secretary of state the day after US President Donald Trump began his second term in office, will host the so-called Quad – a grouping of four countries sharing concerns about China’s growing power – at the State Department on Tuesday (local time).
The meeting between the United States, Australia, India and Japan came a day after Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the US at an inauguration ceremony attended by Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
Analysts said the meeting was designed to signal that countering Beijing was a top priority for the President. It came despite Trump unexpectedly holding off tariffs on China on his first day back at the White House and not singling it out as a threat, raising the prospect of a rapprochement between the rivals.
“Today we’ll have a meeting with the Quad, with foreign ministers from Australia and India and Japan, to reaffirm the importance of working with allies across the world on the things that are important to America and Americans, and that’s what I’m focused on moving forward,” Rubio told NBC’S Today program before his swearing in.
Trump officials were also working on scheduling another gathering of the foreign ministers at the White House, a person involved in planning meetings said.
The meetings could set the stage for a summit of leaders of the Quad countries relatively early in the Trump presidency. Sources familiar with the plan said a meeting between Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba would be possible in Washington next month.
Wong, who met her Indian and Japanese counterparts in Washington at the weekend, said the invitation for Quad foreign ministers to attend Trump’s inauguration showed a dedication to close co-operation in the Indo-Pacific region.
“It’s a demonstration of the collective commitment of all countries to the Quad, an iron-clad commitment in this time where close cooperation in the Indo-Pacific is so important,” she said on Sunday.
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Rubio will also meet the three foreign ministers separately on Tuesday.
The Quad grouping met many times during the administration of former US President Joe Biden. It focused on Beijing’s military and economic activities in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the South China Sea where US allies have pushed back against Beijing’s territorial claims.
The grouping has also pledged to advance co-operation in cybersecurity to protect supply chains and critical infrastructure, including undersea cables.
For Australia, it will be important to secure assurances from Washington about the massive AUKUS defence project, designed to allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines and other advanced weapons such as hypersonic missiles.
China has denounced the Quad as a Cold War construct and says the AUKUS alliance would intensify a regional arms race.
