By Trevor Hunnicutt and David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. secretary of state and the foreign ministers of Australia, India and Japan are expected to meet in Washington on Tuesday, the day after President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, people familiar with the matter said.
Experts said the meeting, the first major diplomatic event of the Trump presidency, would send a strong signal of continuity for the "Quad", a grouping formed amid shared concerns about China's growing power.
Trump will be sworn in for a second term on Monday, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar are expected to attend the ceremony.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio appears on track for confirmation as Trump's secretary of state on Monday, clearing the way for the Quad meeting the following day, persons familiar with the matter said.
Analysts said a meeting so early in the new administration was unlikely to produce new initiatives but would send a strong message from a grouping that aims to show that Indo-Pacific democracies offer an attractive alternative to China.
"What they're going to be doing is getting to know each other, reviewing where the Quad is, signaling continuity and beginning to sketch ideas of where they want to take the conversation," said Charles Edel, an Indo-Pacific expert at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The transition team for the Trump administration did not respond to a request for comment.
The ministers are also expected to hold bilateral meetings with Rubio.
Wong will likely be looking for assurances that the massive AUKUS defense project launched by Australia, the United States and Britain - about which Trump has not commented on publicly - will continue as planned.
Iwaya said on Friday he would highlight the economic and national security value that Japan offers the U.S.
India wants to discuss how the grouping could improve cooperation in technology and green energy, said an Indian foreign ministry official, adding that the Quad was neither an anti-China alliance nor a new NATO, as China maintains.
Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke by telephone on Friday.
Trump said they had a good discussion on issues including trade, fentanyl and TikTok, adding that "it is my expectation that we will solve many problems together."
Xi said he and Trump both hoped for a positive start to relations during the president-elect's new term, Chinese media reported.
At his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Rubio spoke strongly about the need to confront Beijing and said the U.S. must change course to avoid becoming more reliant on China.
John Lee, a former Australian official now with Washington's conservative Hudson (NYSE:HUD) Institute, said the visiting ministers would want to allay concerns that the second Trump administration signals a more isolationist United States.
"(It is) a chance for the other members to ensure the 2nd term Trump administration continues to see the Quad as one of the key arrangements in the Indo-Pacific to advance ... a free and open Indo-Pacific," he said.