Just hours after being sworn in as US secretary of state on Tuesday, Marco Rubio focused his foreign policy agenda on strengthening strategic alliances in the Indo-Pacific.

On his first day in the job, he was set to convene a meeting of Quad foreign ministers in Washington, followed by bilateral talks with the foreign ministers of India, Japan and Australia – partners in the bloc formed to counter China’s influence in the region.

Rubio’s meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will be his first as US President Donald Trump’s top diplomat. Jaishankar is in Washington after attending Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

Traditionally, the first foreign outreach of a new administration is either with a neighbour – Canada or Mexico – or with an ally from Nato, the 32-nation transatlantic defence pact.