Quad summit delay sparks fears over US commitment in Asia-Pacific amid ‘competing priorities’

Uncertainty over the next Quad leaders’ meeting after their previous summit in May has sparked concerns about a possible reduction in US presence in the Asia-Pacific and the future of the four-member bloc with the “wind coming out of its sails”.

However, analysts have also pointed out that the bloc’s relevance would not be affected as the postponement of the summit could be due to domestic considerations.

With India’s general elections in April and May and the US presidential elections in November, media reports from these countries have suggested that the next likely window for a meeting of Quad leaders would be the end of this year.

Tom Corben, a research fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, said meetings between Quad leaders play a major role in setting and driving the regional security agenda. As such, a missed summit “could see some of the high-level political wind come out of the Quad’s sails”.

“The Quad already has a stacked agenda as it is, and one which has yet to be fully implemented, so it may not be an entirely bad thing for a year to pass without any new lines of effort that put more pressure on the four countries’ capacity to realise their aspirations,” Corben said.

Committed to supporting the region’s development, stability, and prosperity, Quad’s major initiatives centre on infrastructure, maritime security, public-private partnership, climate, health, critical and emerging technologies, and space.

Eleanor Shiori Hughes, a non-resident fellow at EconVue, a think tank based in Chicago, said that given Biden’s priority in seeking re-election, it will be more difficult for his administration to push for confidence-building measures to reassure the region that America will not