Quad Shifts to Philippines Foreign‑Minister Meeting
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Quad will hold a foreign minister-level meeting in the Philippines from May 23‑26 during U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit, after a leaders’ summit in India failed to materialize last year.
- Quad’s leaders’ summit scheduled for later this year in Australia remains uncertain, reflecting a broader sense that the grouping is fading away.
- Quad was founded in 2007 to counter China, yet its joint statements never name China and India’s reluctance to provoke its neighbor limits the group’s security posture.
- Quad pledged to donate at least 1.2 billion COVID‑19 vaccine doses by the end of 2022, but only 800 million were delivered, with the first shipment arriving more than a year after the announcement.
- Quad’s Malabar naval exercises have deepened military interoperability among the four members, but their practical utility for India is doubtful given its focus on its own border and Pakistan.
- Philippines has emerged as a central U.S. security partner in the Indo‑Pacific, and a new four‑state grouping dubbed the “Squad” (Philippines, Japan, Australia, United States) is positioning itself as a more potent, hard‑security focused alternative to the Quad.
- ASEAN statements rarely mention the Quad, reflecting the group’s limited success in winning over Southeast Asian states.
Why it matters: The pivot to a Philippines foreign‑minister meeting signals the Quad’s diminishing strategic relevance, leaving the United States, Australia, Japan and India with a less decisive forum while the Philippines and the newly‑formed “Squad” gain a more focused security partnership that directly confronts China.
Ask SkimNews
