By David Brunnstrom and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hit the ground running on Tuesday, hosting a meeting in Washington of his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan one day after President Donald Trump started his second term in office.
The meeting of the so-called “Quad”, four countries sharing concerns about China’s growing power, will happen at the State Department and is designed to signal that countering Beijing is a top priority for the new president.
It could also set the stage for the leaders of the Quad countries to hold a summit relatively early in the Trump presidency, a person involved in the planning meetings said.
Trump officials were working on scheduling another gathering of the foreign ministers at the White House as well, a person involved in planning meetings said.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who met her Indian and Japanese counterparts in Washington over the weekend, said the invitation for Quad foreign ministers to attend Trump’s inauguration showed a dedication to close cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
“It’s a demonstration of the collective commitment of all countries to the Quad, an iron-clad commitment in this time where close cooperation in the Indo-Pacific is so important,” Wong said on Sunday of the foreign ministers’ invitation to Washington.
Aside from the meeting itself, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who was confirmed on Monday as Trump’s top diplomat, is expected to meet separately with the three foreign ministers on Tuesday.
The Quad grouping met many times during the administration of former President Joe Biden, with a focus on Beijing’s military and economic activities in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the South China Sea where U.S. allies have pushed back against Beijing’s territorial claims.
The grouping has also pledged to advance cooperation in cybersecurity to protect supply chains and critical infrastructure, including undersea cables.
For Australia, it will be important to secure an assurance from Washington about the massive AUKUS defense project, designed to allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines and other advanced weapons such as hypersonic missiles.
China has denounced the Quad as a Cold War construct and says the AUKUS alliance would intensify a regional arms race.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, David Breunnstrom and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Don Durfee and David Gregorio)
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