Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia], October 27 (ANI): Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday said that the Quad leaders’ summit, involving Australia, the United States, Japan, and India, will be held in the first quarter of 2026, after earlier plans for India to host in 2025 were delayed.
Albanese emphasized the Quad’s importance for regional cooperation during his visit to Malaysia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum. “The Quad is an important forum and an important vehicle for us to engage Australia, the United States, Japan, and India. I’m hopeful that there will be a meeting in the first quarter, I would hope, of next year. Prime Minister Modi is due to host the Quad meeting,” Albanese told reporters at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.
A joint statement released between India and the United States during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s working visit in February 2025 said that PM Modi looked forward to hosting President Trump in New Delhi for the Quad Leaders’ Summit that year. However, the summit was later postponed amid strains between India and the US.
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) is a strategic forum among the United States, India, Australia, and Japan, aimed at ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific. The Quad first came together during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to coordinate disaster response and assistance to affected nations.
The first meeting of Quad officials was held on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum summit in the Philippines in May 2007. After a decade-long hiatus, Quad officials reconvened in Manila in November 2017 on the margins of the East Asia Summit.
The first Quad Leaders’ Summit was held virtually on March 12, 2021, followed by the second (the first in-person) in Washington, DC, on September 24, 2021. The third was held virtually on March 3, 2022, to discuss the situation in Ukraine and its impact on the Indo-Pacific. The fourth (second in-person) summit took place in Tokyo, Japan, on May 24, 2022. The fifth (third in-person) summit was held in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 20, 2023, and Prime Minister Modi participated in the sixth Quad Leaders’ Summit in Wilmington, Delaware, on September 21, 2024.
Meanwhile, Albanese participated in the ASEAN summit in the Malaysian capital, which began on October 26. Leaders and representatives from China, Russia, Japan, India, Australia, and New Zealand attended the ASEAN-related summits. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa participated as observers, with Ramaphosa serving as the Guest of the Chair at the 47th ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit.
The Australian Prime Minister described Southeast Asia as one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, highlighting its “proximity of opportunity” to Australia compared to the “tyranny of distance” from traditional markets in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe.
“Now we speak about the proximity of opportunity. And that is what Southeast Asia represents for us. That is what living right near the fastest-growing region of the world in human history represents for us—an opportunity to grow jobs, to grow our economy, to diversify our markets and our trade, to succeed in Australia, which is the basis of why I am here,” Albanese said, according to a readout of the press conference.
“We’re working to be not just neighbors or observers, but participants and investors here in the region,” he added.
Albanese announced two major investments under the Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility. “Today, we announced $175 million in IFM Investors’ Asia Pacific Debt Fund. IFM represents at least 15 superannuation companies. What that will do is provide that pool of funding for investment here in Southeast Asia. And $50 million in Plenary’s new Southeast Asia Public-Private Partnership Investment Fund—together, these investments represent a major step forward in my government’s delivery on the Southeast Asia Economic Strategy. It’s a quarter of a billion dollars to kick-start Australian investments in the region, support the growth of Australian companies, and deliver jobs back home,” Albanese said. (ANI)
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