Working to formalise Quad leaders’ summit next week: US official

Washington, A meeting of the leaders of the Quad group comprising the US, India, Australia and Japan is likely to be held next week on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, a senior US official said. Working to formalise Quad leaders’ summit next week: US officialPhilippines is hosting the summit in its capacity as the current Chair of the 11-nation ASEAN from Sunday."And we are working to formalise a Quad Leaders Summit at ASEAN next week," US Assistant Secretary of State Dylan Johnson said in a post on X on Saturday, dismissing reports that the group was weakening under President Donald Trump. Johnson said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has held five meetings of Quad foreign ministers over the past two years, with three meetings taking place in the past six months. He said Rubio's first official call after assuming office was to the Quad ministers and the sherpas of the four-country group have had regular monthly calls and meetings."This is an utterly ridiculous take… Fake News," Johnson said, refuting a report in a US media outlet. President Donald Trump spent two years pursuing trade wars, aloof diplomacy and an embrace of Beijing that undermined the four-nation Asia-Pacific alliance created to counter a rising China, a report in the web portal Politico said. The Quad group was created in 2007, but went mostly dormant the following year amid concerns about provoking China. In 2017, Trump revived it to address growing concerns about China's increasing economic, diplomatic and military heft in the Indo-Pacific, though he never held a leaders' summit. Joe Biden participated in six Quad leaders' meetings - two of them virtual - during his presidency. He hosted the last meeting of the Quad in Delaware in 2024. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.