Key takeaways: The leaders of the United States, India, Japan and Australia are expected to meet in Manila on November 17 for the first Quad summit since 2024. Talks are set to cover critical mineral supply chains, the safety of commercial shipping lanes and attacks on ships. It will be the first Quad summit held in a country outside the four-member group.
The leaders of the United States, India, Japan and Australia are expected to meet in Manila on Tuesday, November 17, for the first summit of the Quad grouping in more than two years. The meeting, held on the sidelines of the ASEAN summits in the Philippine capital, will bring together US President Donald Trump, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The gathering has not yet been formally confirmed by all four governments. Sources in New Delhi confirmed to The Hindu on Saturday that the summit is expected to take place on Tuesday evening, probably after Trump lands in Manila, while US officials briefing reporters in Washington confirmed that the president will take part in a “multilateral meeting” with Quad leaders. India’s foreign ministry, asked about the meeting on Friday, said only that it would keep reporters updated on developments in Manila.
The White House has been more direct. Assistant Press Secretary Olivia Wales told reporters that in Manila the president will take part in a meeting with Quad leaders to discuss shared interests of “peace, prosperity, and security in the Indo-Pacific region”. Trump is due to leave Washington early on Monday, November 16, and reach Manila on Tuesday evening.
What is on the agenda
Two subjects dominate the expected agenda: the supply of critical minerals, and the security of the shipping lanes that carry the world’s energy.
US officials briefing reporters said that supply chains for critical minerals and securing commercial shipping lanes for energy supplies would be a key part of the talks. An official quoted by Reuters added that the issue of attacks on commercial ships is very likely to be taken up.
That last item has gained fresh urgency in recent days. Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has been under strain, with oil prices jumping earlier this week after blasts hit tankers in the strait, and Iran’s navy reported over the weekend that three tankers caught fire after hitting naval mines. The safety of ships and seafarers has been a particularly important issue for India: at least 30 Indian seafarers aboard ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman and the Black Sea have been killed in attacks during the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine, according to The Hindu.
Reports have also indicated that a Quad Business Forum mechanism may be announced during the summit, giving companies from the four countries a formal channel to work on shared projects.
It is worth being clear about what the Quad is and is not. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue brings together four Indo-Pacific democracies to cooperate on maritime security, supply chains, critical technologies and connectivity. It does not operate as a formal military alliance, and its summits have typically produced joint statements and working groups rather than treaties. A senior US official has already said no agreement is expected from the Manila meeting, which suggests the value of the gathering lies in the meeting itself: proof, after two years without a leaders’ summit, that the grouping is still active under a second Trump administration.
Why Manila, and why it took so long
The choice of venue tells its own story. The Manila meeting will be the first Quad summit held in a country outside the four-member group, and it reflects the difficulty India has had hosting the summit as chair.
India was supposed to host the summit in 2025 and again in 2026, but neither meeting materialised, mainly because of the US president’s unavailability. New Delhi has been unwilling to hand over the chairmanship without hosting the summit at least once, and sources told The Hindu that a Delhi summit may yet happen next year.
The last Quad leaders’ summit was held in Wilmington, Delaware, in September 2024, during the administration of former US President Joe Biden. The grouping revived its cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in 2017 and upgraded it to leader-level meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Since then, it has held together through changes of government in all four capitals, but it has not met at leader level since Trump returned to office.
The Manila meeting has been discussed for weeks, including during US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visits to India in May and October. Rubio said on October 31 that the Quad leaders would meet in Manila in November. Japan’s government confirmed on Friday that Takaichi would take part, and Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary said a Quad leaders’ meeting was being arranged on the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings.
Confirmation of Trump’s travel was delayed by the US midterm elections on November 3, in which the ruling Republican Party lost its majorities in both houses of Congress. The Hindu reported that the results had held up final decisions on the president’s trips to the Philippines for the East Asia Summit and to China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Pakistan, for its part, has said its ties with the United States will continue regardless of the midterm results.
Modi will visit Manila from November 16 to 17 at the invitation of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., India’s foreign ministry announced on Thursday. During the visit he will take part in the 23rd ASEAN-India Summit and the 21st East Asia Summit, both being held on November 17. The 49th ASEAN Summit itself runs from November 15 to 17, with the Philippines holding the bloc’s chair for 2026.
Why it matters beyond the four countries
The Quad’s agenda reaches well beyond its four members, because the subjects on the table are the arteries of the world economy.
Critical minerals are the raw materials of batteries, electronics and defence equipment, and all four Quad countries share a concern about supply chains that run through a small number of suppliers. Shipping lanes are equally central: a large share of the world’s traded oil and gas moves by sea, and attacks on commercial vessels push up insurance costs, freight rates and, in time, fuel prices.
For Pakistan, that second subject is the more direct one. Much of the country’s oil comes from the Gulf and is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway at the centre of this week’s tanker incidents. When tankers are attacked or mines are reported in those waters, the effects show up in global oil prices and in the cost of the fuel Pakistan imports. The safety of seafarers matters here too: Pakistani crews work on merchant ships across the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and they sail the same routes the Quad leaders will be discussing.
The meeting also matters as a signal to the rest of Asia. Southeast Asian states have watched the Quad warily, keen to benefit from its investment and infrastructure work without being drawn into a contest between great powers. Holding the summit in Manila, on the sidelines of ASEAN’s own gathering and in the capital of a US treaty ally that also trades heavily with China, is a visible attempt to keep the grouping anchored in the region’s own institutions rather than apart from them.
What happens next
The Manila summit is the first stop on a four-day Asia trip for Trump that ends with an even more unusual meeting. After the Philippines, he travels to Shenzhen, China, for the APEC summit, where the White House says he will hold the first-ever three-way meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, November 19.
Nuclear arms control is on the agenda for that meeting, the White House said, while Russia’s war in Ukraine is not, with those negotiations on a separate track. US officials have said no agreement is expected there either. Trump will also hold a working lunch and a bilateral meeting with Xi on Thursday, their fourth meeting this year.
For the Quad, the things to watch after Tuesday are straightforward: formal confirmation and a joint statement, whether the Quad Business Forum is announced, and whether India confirms that Delhi will host the next summit. After two years without a leaders’ meeting, the Manila gathering will be judged less by what it signs than by whether it restarts a regular rhythm of meetings at the top.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Quad?
The Quad, formally the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is a grouping of the United States, India, Japan and Australia that cooperates on maritime security, supply chains, critical technologies and connectivity in the Indo-Pacific. It revived its cooperation in 2017 and upgraded to leader-level meetings in 2021. It is not a formal military alliance.
When and where is the 2026 Quad summit?
The leaders are expected to meet on Tuesday evening, November 17, 2026, in Manila, on the sidelines of the ASEAN summits. It will be the first Quad leaders’ summit since September 2024, when the last one was held in Wilmington, Delaware, and the first ever held in a country outside the four-member group.
What is on the agenda?
Critical mineral supply chains, securing commercial shipping lanes for energy supplies, attacks on commercial ships and the safety of seafarers are expected to dominate. A Quad Business Forum mechanism may also be announced. A senior US official has said no formal agreement is expected from the meeting.
What comes after Manila?
President Trump travels to Shenzhen, China, for the APEC summit, where he is due to hold the first three-way meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 19, focused on nuclear arms control. Ukraine is not on that agenda, US officials said.
Sources
- The Hindu, “Quad Summit likely to be held in Manila on November 17, sources say”, November 14, 2026: https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/quad-summit-likely-to-be-held-in-manila-on-november-17-sources-say/article71702178.ece
- The Indian Express, “Quad Summit 2026: Modi, Trump, Takaichi and Albanese may meet in Manila”, November 12, 2026: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/quad-asean-summit-manila-narendra-modi-donald-trump-2026-10960698/
- News9 Live, “Quad Summit 2026: PM Modi, Trump to meet in Manila on November 17”, November 14, 2026: https://www.news9live.com/india/quad-summit-2026-pm-modi-trump-to-meet-in-manila-on-november-17-3024557/amp
- Political.org, “Trump, Modi, Takaichi and Albanese Expected to Hold First Quad Leaders’ Summit in Two Years in Manila on Tuesday, November 17”, November 13, 2026: https://political.org/2026/11/13/trump-modi-takaichi-and-albanese-expected-to-hold-first-quad-leaders-summit-in-two-years-in-manila-on-tuesday-november-17/
- Moneycontrol, “Trump to meet with Xi, Putin November 19 in China for talks”, November 14, 2026: https://www.moneycontrol.com/world/trump-to-meet-with-xi-putin-november-19-in-china-for-talks-article-14079991.html
- Malaysia Brief, “Trump, Xi and Putin to meet at Apec summit in Shenzhen”, November 15, 2026: https://www.malaysia-brief.com/trump-xi-putin-meeting-apec-shenzhen/
- The Manila Times, “HEADLINES: World leaders here for Asean Summit | November 15, 2026”, November 15, 2026: https://beta.manilatimes.net/2026/11/15/podcasts/headlines-world-leaders-here-for-asean-summit-november-15-2026/2470070
