US set to host Quad Leaders Summit in Manila next week

India, the US, Japan and Australia are expected to announce new initiatives on economic security and strategic infrastructure at the Quad summit in Manila.

Quad member states are expected to unveil several deliverables, mainly focused on economic security and strategic infrastructure, at the leaders’ summit that is expected to be held on the margins of the Asean Summit in Manila next week, people familiar with the matter said.

The upcoming Quad Leaders’ Summit — the first gathering of the leaders of India, Australia, Japan and the US since September 2024 — is set to be hosted by the US, the people said on condition of anonymity. India was set to chair the leaders’ summit in 2025, but its efforts to arrange the meeting last year were hampered by a lack of clarity over US President Donald Trump’s travel plans.

The deliverables expected to be unveiled at the upcoming summit were finalised at the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting on the margins of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta on October 31, the people said. The foreign ministers’ meeting resulted in several outcomes, including the provision of technical and financial aid worth more than $85 million to support access to trusted artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across the Indo-Pacific.

Economic security will remain an area of focus for the Quad, even as the grouping continues its work on critical technologies, maritime domain awareness and strategic infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific, the people said.

The people also pointed to the significance of the US hosting the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Manila amid continuing tensions between China and the Philippines. Beijing and Manila have had a series of testy exchanges since last month, when the Chinese envoy reacted strongly to Philippine defence secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr’s description of China as a regional “troublemaker”.

The envoy responded by saying that the Philippines should be grateful to have a neighbour like China, adding that “if we want to use force, we may easily win”. This was followed by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos saying that the envoy’s remarks sounded “very much like a threat”.

However, there is still a lack of clarity on the timing of the Quad Leaders’ Summit, which is expected to be held later in the day on November 17, following the East Asia Summit, the people said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to arrive in Manila on the afternoon of November 16 and leave early on November 18, the people said.

The upcoming summit will also mark a departure from the practice of holding such meetings only in Quad member states.

Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More