India to host Quad summit next year, PM Modi says

U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a Quad Leaders' meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, May 20, 2023, in Hiroshima, Japan. Kenny Holston/Pool via REUTERS

India will host the United States, Australia and Japan next year for a summit of the group of regional powers known as the Quad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday.

The meeting was moved to the sidelines of the Group of Seven nations summit in Japan's Hiroshima after U.S. President Joe Biden postponed his trip to Australia to return to Washington, amid ongoing negotiations over the raising the U.S. debt limit.

Modi, whose country will also host the G20 summit later this year, told the leaders of the other three Quad countries in opening remarks that the group was an important platform for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

U.S. President Joe Biden, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a Quad meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit, at the Grand Prince Hotel in Hiroshima, Japan, May 20, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Pool

The Quad's mission is to advance a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific region, Biden told the same meeting.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Writing by Katya GolubkovaEditing by William Maclean and Peter Graff)