Rubio revives 'Quad' alliance in India, but staying power unclear

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Tuesday for a revival of joint cooperation with Australia, India, and Japan --  the so-called Quad grouping viewed suspiciously by China -- following disagreement on Iran and questions over U.S. commitment.

The meeting in New Delhi comes 10 days after U.S. President Donald Trump paid a friendly state visit to China and spoke glowingly of the two powers working together as a "G2" -- a concept that the U.S. allies who are concerned about Beijing's rise fear could shut them out.

Rubio took the symbolic step of meeting Quad foreign ministers in Washington within hours of being sworn in last year, and the four gathered again in Washington in July 2025.

But a Quad summit expected last year did not happen, with Trump not committing to travel to India for it, despite his predecessor Joe Biden's vow that the four-way leaders' summits would be "here to stay."

Meeting his counterparts in New Delhi, Rubio said the Quad has become "even more relevant and more important because of recent events around the world."

"Our goal collectively over the last year has been to turn this from a forum in which we meet and talk about problems, to one where we actually do something about it," he said, saying cooperation was progressing "pretty aggressively."

He said that the Quad should cooperate on securing the supply of critical minerals, a rare area in which the Trump administration has turned to the more traditional diplomacy of building networks with allies, alarmed at the dominance of China in resources key to the high-end technology sector.

Other areas of cooperation include freedom of navigation, humanitarian responses, and energy security, Rubio said.

"Each of these four nations represented here today brings unique capabilities that collectively we can bring to bear on some of the most significant problems facing the world," Rubio said.

AFP