Quad Summit in India proposed to be held later in 2024: Sources

The QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) Summit which was slated to be held in India in January is proposed “to be held later” in 2024, according to sources. The sources said that revised dates are under consideration as the current ones do not work with all the QUAD partners. “We are looking for revised dates as the dates currently under consideration do not work with all the Quad partners,” said the sources.

Reasons for Cancellations

The Quad summit, which was hosted by Sydney this year in May 2024, was canceled after US President Biden withdrew from his visit due to ongoing debt limit talks in Washington. The decision — which prompted Albanese to cancel the scheduled Quad summit — was seen as a self-inflicted blow to hopes of a more visible US presence in the Indo-Pacific amid its competition with China in the region. Biden scrapped his planned trip to Sydney as well as a historic visit to Papua New Guinea.

However, the leaders of the alliance, later agreed that they would hold their summit in Hiroshima, alongside G7 to ensure that the four leaders could come together to mark the Quad’s progress over the past year. US President Biden thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for agreeing to participate in the Quad meeting today on the sidelines of the G7 summit here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in May, had announced on the margins of the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, that India would host the next Quad leaders’ Summit.

About QUAD

The QUAD is the grouping of four democracies — India, Australia, the US, and Japan — that aims to ensure and support a “free, open, inclusive and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region. The forum traces its genesis to 2004 when the four countries came together to coordinate relief operations in the aftermath of the tsunami. In 2007, the group again met on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) sidelines. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first to pitch the idea for the formation of Quad in 2007.

Problems in Indo-Pacific Region

The multilateral grouping also holds multi-lateral exercises in the Indo-Pacific Region called Malabar Exercises to counter China and its hegemonic aggression, especially in the South China Sea, East China Sea, and Indian Ocean Region (IOR).  All members also oppose the construction of artificial islands and reefs by China which it uses to stake claims over complete ownership of the South China Sea.

Apart from combating China, there are a multitude of pertinent array of problems such as piracy, drug trafficking, nuclearization of North Korea, coupled with the protection of South Korea and Taiwan from the dragon.  Additionally, in the East China Sea, there is a contentious dispute between Japan and China over Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands.