India prepares to host the Quad foreign ministers in New Delhi on Tuesday, with the Hormuz crisis and a contested Indo-Pacific topping the agenda. Japan’s Nikkei hit an intraday record as a sharp oil drop relieved the energy importer. Taiwan’s Taiex touched an all-time high on the chip rally, and China’s CSI 300 jumped. India’s central bank flagged the rupee as undervalued after a 6% slide. Today’s Asia intelligence brief, with Hong Kong, Seoul, and US markets shut for holidays, tracks six decisions converging on the Monday tape.
01 · India — Jaishankar to Host Quad Foreign Ministers Amid Hormuz Crisis
India will host the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday, chaired by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australia’s Penny Wong, and Japan’s Toshimitsu Motegi. It is the first such gathering in India since 2023 and the first since the July 2025 Washington meeting, coming days after President Trump’s Beijing summit with Xi Jinping.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the West Asia conflict’s potential global impact sit high on the agenda alongside a free and open Indo-Pacific, though analysts note the grouping is shifting toward economics — critical minerals, supply-chain resilience, and emerging technology — with China the unstated focus. Rubio arrived in New Delhi for separate bilateral talks ahead of the meeting. The session is widely read as a signal that US engagement with Beijing does not diminish Washington’s Indo-Pacific commitment, even as doubts over the Quad’s momentum have grown with no leaders’ summit since 2024.
