Quad Summit likely to be held in Manila on November 17, sources say

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet U.S. President Donald Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the first Quad Summit since 2024 this week in Manila, on the sidelines of ASEAN summits, sources in New Delhi confirmed to The Hindu. The meeting is expected to take place on November 17 evening, the sources said, adding that it would probably take place after Mr. Trump lands in Manila.

While the confirmation of the Quad Summit in Manila is significant for the Indo-Pacific grouping, and plans to chart out their next course, much of the attention will be taken by Mr. Trump’s pronouncements at his next stop in Shenzhen, China, where he will hold the first-ever three-way summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 19, to discuss global issues including nuclear arms control.

In Washington, U.S. officials briefing media on Mr. Trump’s travels also confirmed that the US President will travel to Manila and, among other meetings, will take part in a “multilateral meeting” with Quad country leaders, news agency Reuters reported.

The agency quoted an official briefing by unnamed officials who said that supply chains for critical minerals and securing commercial shipping lanes for energy supplies would be a key part of the agenda. “The issue of attacks on commercial ships is very likely to ​be taken up,” the unnamed official quoted by Reuters said. The safety of ships and seafarers has been a particularly important issue for India, as at least 30 Indian seafarers aboard ships in the Hormuz Strait, the Sea of Oman, and the Black Sea have been killed in attacks during the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine, respectively. Earlier, reports had indicated that a Quad Business Forum mechanism would also be announced during the Summit.

The Manila meeting will be the first Quad Summit to be held in a non-Quad country and indicates the challenges that India has faced as the Chair of the Summit of the four-country grouping that revived its cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in 2017, upgrading it during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 to leader-level meetings. Since then, the government has been unable to host the Quad Summit in India even once, mainly due to the U.S. President’s unavailability. New Delhi is unwilling to hand over the Chairship of the summit without hosting it here either, which may yet happen in Delhi next year, the sources told The Hindu.

Officials didn’t clarify on who will be the official host of the meeting in Manila, which has been discussed for weeks, including during U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visits to India this year in May and October. The US midterm election results, in which the ruling Republican Party lost its majorities in the U.S. Congress, had delayed the confirmation of Mr. Trump’s travels to the Philippines for the East Asia Summit and to China for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.

On Friday (November 13, 2026), when asked at a briefing, government spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told journalists only that the MEA would “keep [them] updated with developments in Manila pertaining to the Quad”. On Saturday (November 14, 2026) evening, officials who confirmed the Summit would take place late on Tuesday evening (November 17, 2026) said they were still awaiting a formal intimation of the timing.