By Daphne Psaledakis, Simon Lewis (JO:) and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with counterparts from Australia, India and Japan on Tuesday, a meeting he said will stress the importance of working with allies “on the things that are important to America and Americans.”
Rubio, who was sworn in as secretary of state the day after President Donald Trump began his second term in office on Monday, hosted counterparts from the “Quad” – a grouping of four countries sharing concerns about China’s growing power – at the State Department.
The ministers – Australia’s Penny Wong, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Japan’s Takeshi Iwaya – posed with Rubio in front of the flags of their countries before the meeting, but did not respond to questions from reporters.
Analysts have said the meeting is designed to signal that countering Beijing is a top priority for the new president, even as Trump unexpectedly held off tariffs on China on his first day back at the White House and did not single it out as a threat, raising the prospect of a rapprochement between the rivals.
“Today we’ll have a meeting with the Quad, with foreign ministers from Australia and India and Japan, to reaffirm the importance of working with allies across the world on the things that are important to America and Americans, and that’s what I’m focused on moving forward,” Rubio told NBC’s Today program before his swearing in.
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.
The meetings could set the stage for a summit of leaders of the Quad countries relatively early in the Trump presidency, a person involved in the planning meetings said. Sources familiar with the planning said a meeting between Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was possible in Washington next month.
Australia’s 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.
Rubio is due 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 assurances 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.
