In what is a welcome move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is learnt to have started serious consultations with his top advisors and diplomatic officials on the proposal of holding the Quad Summit in New Delhi early 2024. Some officials, who are learnt to be privy to inside discussions, in the diplomatic establishments here are confident that India will definitely host the next Quad summit in 2024. The date is yet to be finalized.
PM Modi is reported to have asked the officials concerned to start initial preparation for the event in anticipation. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who is likely to hold talks with his counterparts of the other Quad member countries –USA, Japan and Australia – on the margins of UNGA high-level meeting to be held on 26 September in New York, is expected to finalise the date and venue for the next Quad summit. New Delhi as the next venue for the group’s leaders’ summit is likely to be finalized during the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in New York. If New Delhi is finalized as the next venue for the Quad summit, it will be another important event in India after the recently-held G-20 Summit. Another summit of the powerful world leaders of a significant bloc in New Delhi will further bolster and boost India’s image as an important and indispensable partner in the Indo-Pacific and other key regions of the world. It will further strengthen India’s image as a responsible and powerful country when it comes to addressing the humanitarian and other territorial challenges. Needless to say, the Quad, a coalition forged by India, Japan, Australia and the United States to counter China’s hegemonic aspirations in the Indo-Pacific region, relies heavily on the guidance and advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Though China has called the grouping a divisive and exclusivist bloc “being used by Washington against Beijing”, PM Modi has been able to establish Quad’s image as a group for global good. Modi always made it a point to extend help to the countries in trouble to address the humanitarian crisis there. He also involved the Quad members in such missions. Modi has already said on many occasions that the group is an important platform for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The Quad’s mission is also to advance a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific region.
There is no denying, if the Quad summit happens in New Delhi, it will be a meaningful message for Beijing as well. The Quad summit in India will be a much-needed opportunity for New Delhi, Washington, Canberra and Tokyo to serve the hardest possible message to Beijing on the issue of territorial integrity and sovereignty of the other countries in the backdrop of PLA’s aggression along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in various sectors including eastern Ladakh. Once India is given the responsibility of hosting the Quad summit early next year, the Indian side will, definitely, be ready with the right message for the Chinese government from the soil of New Delhi. With all this in view, the Modi government is expected to make every possible effort to ensure that the summit of this powerful bloc is held in New Delhi in 2024. In May 2023, PM Modi had himself said that India would host the United States, Australia and Japan next year for a summit of the group of regional powers known as the Quad. In fact, during their meeting on the sideline of the G-7 summit at Hiroshima in Japan in the month of May, PM Modi, US President Joe Biden, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reportedly agreed to hold the next summit of the four-nation bloc in India in 2024. If the summit is held in New Delhi, it will be another opportunity for the four leaders to be together in India again after their meeting that took place on the margin of the G-20 Summit in the Indian capital 9-10 September.
What is being seen as another good move by the Modi government is that it is considering inviting leaders of the Quad grouping for the Republic Day celebrations next year. Such a get-together of leaders of the powerful countries and major players in the Indo-Pacific would definitely pose a significant picture having a strategic message for China and other countries which defy international laws and customs on regional peace, respecting territorial integrity and sovereignty of other nations..
