Quad leaders to meet in Manila on Tuesday in the grouping's first summit in two years
Leaders of the United States, Japan, Australia and India are expected to meet on Tuesday in Manila, on the sidelines of a major Asian summit season, in what would be the first summit of the four-nation Quad grouping in two years, according to people familiar with the planning. The White House has confirmed that the American president will meet his Quad counterparts during his visit to the Philippines.
The Quad is widely regarded as a counterweight to China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific, though its members insist the grouping is not directed against any one country. The White House outlined broad regional priorities for the discussions but announced no specific agreements expected from the meeting.
Critical minerals supplies are expected to be discussed, according to one person familiar with planning. That person said leaders would probably also address free commercial shipping lanes, energy security and attacks on merchant vessels. A second person, from the Philippine government, said the leaders were expected to gather shortly after the US president arrives on Tuesday, November 17. It would be the first Quad leaders' meeting since his return to office; the previous summit took place in Delaware in September 2024 and announced maritime security initiatives.
A crowded diplomatic week in Manila
The meeting lands amid a packed diplomatic schedule in the Philippine capital. The annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its Asian and Western partners runs from Sunday at a heavily guarded convention centre on Manila Bay, with the American president expected to join the final talks. Drafts of post-summit communiques, seen by news agencies, call for the peaceful resolution of the region's intractable conflicts but anticipate no major breakthroughs. The bloc is also expected to postpone a decision on whether Myanmar's leaders and ministers may return to key political meetings, diplomatic sources said, with the country sidelined since its 2021 military coup.
The Manila talks come days before the American president's expected meeting with the Chinese and Russian presidents in Shenzhen, keeping the Indo-Pacific at the centre of an intense fortnight of summitry that will test the region's competing alliances.
White House assistant press secretary Olivia Wales said the Quad discussion would cover peace, prosperity and security in a free and open Indo-Pacific, calling it a partnership of action. No separate US-India leaders' meeting or detailed set of Quad agreements was announced. The grouping's foreign ministers met in Atlanta on October 31; their statement welcomed a US commitment of $10 million for infrastructure recovering critical minerals from waste in India and ASEAN countries, among other initiatives.
The White House itinerary has the US president leaving Washington early Monday local time and arriving in Manila on Tuesday evening. Quad talks are listed before a trade agreement signing with Thailand, a US-ASEAN special summit and dinner with regional leaders. Wednesday brings a palace welcome, bilateral talks and a banquet, with aviation, defence, energy and technology investments expected to feature. He then travels to Shenzhen for an APEC leaders' dinner and Thursday's meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Three-way talks with Russia's president are also due to include nuclear weapons, though a senior US official said no agreement was expected.