External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar will travel to the United States from June 30 to July 2 as a guest of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated on Sunday.
His trip will be centered on attending the next Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting (QFMM), which is to be held on July 1 in Washington.
As per the MEA release, the Quad countries' ministers – India, the United States, Australia, and Japan – will take forward the discussions from their earlier meeting in Washington this year on January 21. They will discuss regional and international developments, especially issues related to the Indo-Pacific, and also review progress on current Quad initiatives.
The session will also be a lead-up to the subsequent Quad Leaders' Summit that India will host. "The Ministers are also anticipated to discuss new proposals for driving forward the shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific," the statement continued.
Apart from his involvement in the QFMM, EAM Jaishankar will open an exhibition called "The Human Cost of Terrorism" at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on June 30. Curated by India's Permanent Mission to the UN, the exhibition seeks to highlight the serious impact of terrorism around the globe and highlight the combined efforts taken by the international community against it. The conference coincides with Pakistan's next turn at chairing the UN Security Council's rotating presidency.
The QFMM, which will be hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will see Foreign Ministers Penny Wong of Australia and Japan's Iwaya Takeshi in attendance as well. Rubio, who took office on January 21, hosted his first official diplomatic function—a Quad foreign ministers meeting—the next day, marking the administration's continued emphasis on the Indo-Pacific region.
Speaking of the meeting to come, U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Thomas Pigott added, "This builds on that momentum to advance a free, open, and secure Indo-Pacific. This is what American leadership looks like: strength, peace, and prosperity."
Before the Washington meet, Dr. Jaishankar tweeted on X (formerly Twitter) that he had conducted preparatory talks with his counterpart Penny Wong of Australia on Thursday. This will be the first Quad foreign ministers' meet after the recent terror attack at Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir.
The ministerial discussions next week will pave the way for the high-level Quad Leaders' Summit in India to be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The summit is likely to be attended by U.S. President Donald Trump, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
At their February meeting, PM Modi had indicated his expectation of hosting President Trump in India for the summit. The quick scheduling of the Quad meeting after Trump's inauguration was a clear indication of a revived emphasis on the Indo-Pacific region even as the international focus stayed fixed on Ukraine and Middle Eastern crises.
With tensions between Iran and Israel having momentarily eased, the strategic spotlight is likely to return to the Indo-Pacific region—where increasing unease about China's growing assertiveness is still configuring multilateral cooperation.
