Modi-Trump meeting: India, US announce plans for fresh Quad initiatives, launch bilateral strategic venture

This comes at a time when President Trump has been talking about walking out of multilateral groupings and initiatives. Sources said this means that Trump is strategic in his approach on which initiatives to invest in. He has walked out of the Paris Climate Agreement, the World Health Organization (WHO), and has threatened North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries by asking them to share the financial burden.

Under the rubric of “Multilateral Cooperation”, the joint statement said PM Modi looks forward to hosting President Trump in New Delhi for the Quad leaders’ Summit, ahead of which the “leaders will activate new Quad initiatives on shared airlift capacity to support civilian response to natural disasters and maritime patrols to improve interoperability”. The Quad grouping comprises India, Japan, Australia and the United States.

Stating that the leaders “resolved to increase cooperation, enhance diplomatic consultations, and increase tangible collaboration with partners in the Middle East”, it said that they highlighted the importance of investing in critical infrastructure and economic corridors to advancing peace and security in the region.

It added that they plan to “convene partners from the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor and the I2U2 Group within the next six months in order to announce new initiatives in 2025”. Also referred to as the ‘West Asian Quad’, I2U2 stands for India, Israel, the UAE, and the US.

The joint statement also talked about the launch of the “Indian Ocean Strategic Venture”, a new bilateral, whole-of-government forum to advance coordinated investments in economic connectivity and commerce.

“The US appreciates India’s role as a developmental, humanitarian assistance and net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region. In this context, the leaders committed to deepen bilateral dialogue and cooperation across the vast Indian Ocean region and launched the Indian Ocean Strategic Venture, a new bilateral, whole-of-government forum to advance coordinated investments in economic connectivity and commerce,” it said.

“Supporting greater Indian Ocean connectivity, the leaders also welcomed Meta’s announcement of a multi-billion, multi-year investment in an undersea cable project that will begin work this year and ultimately stretch over 50,000 km to connect five continents and strengthen global digital highways in the Indian Ocean region and beyond. India intends to invest in maintenance, repair and financing of undersea cables in the Indian Ocean, using trusted vendors,” it added.

According to the joint statement, the leaders recognised the need to build “new plurilateral anchor partnerships in the Western Indian Ocean, Middle East, and Indo-Pacific” to grow relationships, commerce and cooperation across defence, technology, energy and critical minerals. The leaders expect to announce new partnership initiatives across these sub-regions by fall this year, it said.

The statement said the leaders also resolved to advance military cooperation in multinational settings to advance global peace and security. The leaders applauded “India’s decision to take on a future leadership role in the Combined Maritime Forces naval task force to help secure sea lanes in the Arabian Sea,” it stated.