Just hours after being sworn in as US secretary of state on Tuesday, Marco Rubio focused his foreign policy agenda on strengthening strategic alliances in the Indo-Pacific.
On his first day in the job, he was set to convene a meeting of Quad foreign ministers in Washington, followed by bilateral talks with the foreign ministers of India, Japan and Australia – partners in the bloc formed to counter China’s influence in the region.
Rubio’s meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will be his first as US President Donald Trump’s top diplomat. Jaishankar is in Washington after attending Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Traditionally, the first foreign outreach of a new administration is either with a neighbour – Canada or Mexico – or with an ally from Nato, the 32-nation transatlantic defence pact.
Experts said that by choosing the Quad as his initial focal point, Rubio underscored the Trump administration’s emphasis on maintaining a strategic balance in Asia, particularly in light of China’s expanding economic and military footprint.
Led by the US, the Quad was originally formed in 2004 but remained dormant until 2017. It was revived during Trump’s first term as a group of democracies pushing back against an “autocratic” China. The alliance was elevated to the leaders’ level under US president Joe Biden in 2021.