By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday that a meeting of the Quad group leaders is likely to be held in the first quarter of 2026.
A meeting of the leaders of Australia, the United States, Japan and India had been expected to be hosted by India in 2025.
Albanese told reporters in Malaysia, where he is attending the ASEAN forum, that the Quad is an important forum for the four countries.
"I am hopeful there will be a meeting in the first quarter I would hope of next year," Albanese said.
The leaders' meeting rotates among the four countries.
Albanese said U.S. President Donald Trump "has a busy period" ahead in 2025, including attending the APEC summit in South Korea later this week.
The Australian leader met with China's Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of ASEAN on Monday, during which Albanese said he raised concerns over an encounter between a Chinese fighter jet and an Australian maritime patrol aircraft.
The Chinese jet released flares in close proximity to an Australian maritime patrol plane carrying out surveillance in the South China Sea. The incident was the latest in a series of encounters which Australia's defence department said posed a risk to Australian crews.
"I made the position directly clear that this was an incident of concern for Australia," Albanese told reporters.
Albanese said his seventh meeting with Li showed that Australia and China, its largest trading partner, could manage differences through dialogue as ties improve and stabilise.
"We have disagreements and friends are able to discuss issues frankly - I did that," he added.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; writing by Praveen Menon; Editing by Kim Coghill and Michael Perry)
