Rubio to Host Quad Foreign Ministers and Close Group of 20 Talks in Atlanta

ATLANTA, Oct 31 – United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan in Atlanta on Saturday, as plans come together for a summit of the four countries’ leaders in Manila next month.

The four nations make up the Quad, an informal group that works together on security and economic issues in the Indo-Pacific region. Saturday’s meeting will be the third time the Quad’s foreign ministers have met this year, after earlier talks in New Delhi and Manila.

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong are expected at the talks, which are due to begin at 9 a.m. local time on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of 20 major economies. Sergio Gor, the United States ambassador to India, has also traveled to Atlanta for the meetings.

The leaders’ summit is set to take place during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference in the Philippine capital from November 15 to 18. It will be the first Quad summit since 2024, and the first one for President Donald Trump.

The Quad has a long history, but it has grown in fits and starts. The four countries first worked together after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, when they coordinated relief efforts. The group then went quiet for years before it was revived in 2017, during Trump’s first term, as concern grew in all four capitals about China’s rising power in the region.

Although the group dates back further, its leaders didn’t start holding formal summits until President Joe Biden took office in 2021. The last one was held in September 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware, Joe Biden’s hometown.

Trump had been due to attend a Quad summit in India late last year, but he canceled the trip amid trade disputes and tariff tensions with New Delhi. That left the group without a leaders’ meeting for more than two years.

Those tensions haven’t fully gone away, and some experts say they could limit what the group agrees to. Farwa Aamer, who leads South Asia work at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the ministers are expected to lay the groundwork for the Manila summit. But she noted that much of the Quad’s agenda, including critical minerals and energy, is already being handled in one-on-one talks between the countries.

Experts say the Atlanta talks will also be a test of how united the group really is, at a time when relations between Washington and New Delhi remain strained.

Marco Rubio has said he wants the summit to produce real results.

Earlier this month, he told Indian media that the leaders would be able to announce concrete measures rather than hold a pleasant get-together. While he did not provide details, cooperation on critical minerals and maritime security is expected to feature on the agenda.

Timing may also play an important role. The Trump administration appears keen to deepen ties with its Quad partners ahead of President Trump’s expected talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which could strengthen Washington’s position in those discussions, according to Japan’s Jiji Press news agency.

Marco Rubio has also connected security at sea to the wider economy. In a post on X during the Atlanta meetings, he said he had told the Group of 20 that maritime and food security are essential foundations of economic security.

Following the Quad talks, Rubio is expected to bring the two-day Group of 20 foreign ministers’ meeting to a close with a final session on supply chains. He is then scheduled to hold a news conference.

Then the diplomacy takes a lighter turn. Marco Rubio has invited the visiting ministers to a college football game, according to the State Department’s schedule. His older son, Anthony, is a running back for the University of Florida, which is playing the higher-ranked University of Georgia.

At a reception at the Georgia Aquarium on Friday evening, Marco Rubio again urged Group of 20 members to work together where they can, given the complex economic and political challenges facing the world, many of which have serious global effects.

“Because we all face these challenges, we must all work together to address them,” Marco Rubio said. He added that countries’ interests will not always align, but that they should cooperate whenever and wherever they can.

Friday’s talks showed just how hard that can be. The meeting exposed deep divisions within the group over the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Organizers dropped the usual group photo after some European members refused to be pictured alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

There was another flashpoint over who gets a seat at the table. The United States has proposed making Poland a full member of the group. Marco Rubio said Poland deserves the spot, but Sergei Lavrov said inviting Poland broke with the group’s practice of making decisions by consensus. Western officials say it could take years for Poland to be admitted, given Russia’s opposition.

The State Department has said it wants to bring the Group of 20 back to its core economic purpose, with a focus on growth, economic security and practical results. Its agenda in Atlanta included threats to shipping lanes, energy and food security, and supply chains.

Marco Rubio said he hopes the foreign ministers can help lay the groundwork for a successful Group of 20 leaders’ summit, scheduled for December 14 and 15 at President Trump’s Doral golf resort in Florida.