US also 'deeply committed' to Quad: Secretary of State Marco Rubio

The US is "deeply committed" to the Quad - the grouping with India, Japan and Australia - and will continue to build on that in the year to come, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.

...we're also deeply committed to the Quad, the concept of in conjunction with Japan and India, the building out of this Quad, which is something you'll see, Rubio said Monday.

He delivered remarks along with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong at the Department of State before the Australia-US Ministerial Consultations.

Rubio said that the Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting was his first meeting soon after he was sworn in as Secretary of State in January this year.

I had been confirmed, sworn in downstairs, and came right up on that elevator and into this room. And it was in this very room that I did my first event as Secretary of State with the Quad," Rubio said.

"...I think we've had at least three meetings this year, if I'm I recall correctly, and we'll continue to build on that in the year to come. We look to do more of those, Rubio said.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya, Rubio and Wong had met on January 21 for the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the first meeting of the grouping as the second term of US President Donald Trump in the White House commenced this year.

The Quad Foreign Ministers had met again in Washington, DC in July.

The 2025 Quad Leaders' Summit was due to be held in India after the 2024 summit was hosted in Wilmington, Delaware. However, the dates for the summit in India are yet to be announced.

The third Quad Counterterrorism Working Group (CTWG) meeting between India, Japan, Australia and the United States was held in New Delhi on December 4-5 as a part of India's rotation hosting the next Quad Summit. The Quad CTWG was established during the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in New Delhi in March 2023.

The US hosted the fourth annual Quad Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) Tabletop Exercise and Strategic Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, from December 2-5. This annual event brought together government officials from the United States, Australia, India, and Japan to strengthen disaster-response capabilities across the Indo-Pacific.