Quad Foreign Ministers Meet in Delhi on Energy Security
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- Quad foreign ministers from Japan, Australia, India, and the US will meet May 26 in New Delhi to discuss energy security and pave the way for a leaders' summit, the first such gathering since September 2024.
- Toshimitsu Motegi (Japan), Marco Rubio (US), Penny Wong (Australia), and S. Jaishankar (India) are expected to seek concrete steps to diversify critical mineral and rare earth supply chains amid Chinese export restrictions.
- The last Quad leaders' summit was held in September 2024, and no leaders' meeting has occurred under Trump's second administration, which has placed less emphasis on multilateral diplomacy.
- A planned 2025 summit in India was shelved due to US-India strains over New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil and disagreements over mediation efforts after India-Pakistan armed clashes.
- Fuel price surges following US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 have underscored vulnerabilities in energy security, driving the meeting's focus.
- Ministers will also reaffirm cooperation toward a 'free and open Indo-Pacific,' and artificial intelligence is expected to feature in the discussions.
Why it matters: The Quad convenes its first senior officials under Trump's second term, where critical mineral and rare earth supply chain diversification offers a tangible deliverable absent since the September 2024 leaders' summit. The shelved 2025 India summit over Russian oil purchases shows US-India friction persists beneath cooperative rhetoric, and the critical mineral push directly responds to Chinese export curbs — a concrete policy outcome that could reduce Indo-Pacific dependency on Beijing.
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