“Strong determination on both sides to host Quad Summit in India”: US Deputy Secy of State Kurt Campbell

US Deputy Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell on Wednesday said that India and the US expressed a strong determination to hold the QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) Summit this year.

The senior US official was addressing an online briefing on the recently concluded India-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) today.

Campbell highlighted that the issue of the Quad was discussed between US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and NSA Ajit Doval during Sullivan’s recent visit to India.

“The issue of the Quad was discussed between the two national security advisors. Both sides expressed a strong determination that, in fact, the quad will be held this year, before the end of the year. There is a strong determination on both sides to hold the quad,” Kurt Cambell said in the briefing.

US NSA Jake Sullivan and Deputy Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell were in India for the key meeting of the US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) in the national capital last week.

The meeting was chaired by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and visiting US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

Last year, the sources highlighted that the QUAD Summit, which was slated to be held in India in January this year, has been proposed “to be held later” in 2024.

The sources said that revised dates are under consideration as the current ones do not work with all the QUAD partners.

“We are looking for revised dates as the dates currently under consideration do not work with all the Quad partners,” said the sources.

In May last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on the margins of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, that India would host the next Quad leaders’ summit.

The QUAD is the grouping of four democracies — India, Australia, the US, and Japan — that aims to ensure and support a “free, open and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region.

The forum traces its genesis to 2004, when the four countries came together to coordinate relief operations in the aftermath of the tsunami.

In 2007, the group again met on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) sidelines. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first to pitch the idea for the formation of Quad in 2007.