The United States has rejected a media report claiming that the Quad alliance involving India, the US, Australia and Japan is faltering under Trump administration, with a senior State Department official calling the assessment “utterly ridiculous”.US assistant secretary of state for global public affairs Dylan Johnson pushed back against the November 14 report by Politico, which suggested that the strategic grouping had been left “on life support” because of the Trump administration’s policy approach and what it described as a lack of engagement.In a post on X, Johnson cited regular diplomatic engagements among the four countries to counter the report.“This is an utterly ridiculous take. @SecRubio has formally met with the Quad foreign ministers five times in the past two years — with three meetings in the past six months. The Secretary’s first official call in office was to the Quad. We have regular monthly Quad sherpa calls and meetings,” he wrote.He added that Washington will look to formalise a Quad leaders’ summit on the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings in Manila next week, describing the report as “Fake News!”The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, is a strategic grouping of India, the United States, Japan and Australia. It focuses on cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, including maritime security, regional stability, infrastructure, technology, health and disaster response. The grouping is not a formal military alliance.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said last month that the four countries had agreed to hold the summit in Manila. He said the meeting would focus on delivering “concrete actions” rather than being a social gathering.However, the ministry of external affairs has not confirmed whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet US President Donald Trump or whether a Quad leaders’ meeting will take place during the visit.PM Modi is scheduled to travel to the Philippines from November 16 to 18 to attend the ASEAN meetings and the East Asia Summit. At a briefing, Secretary (East) Rudrendra Tandon said the programme was still being developed. “This is a programme that is quickly being developed and we don’t have information as of now about it, except that the PM is attending the ASEAN meet in the Philippines,” he said.A meeting between PM Modi and Trump would be their first in-person interaction since the Republican Party’s setbacks in the US midterm elections. The two leaders last met at the G7 summit in France and spoke over the phone in September. Their discussions would also come amid ongoing negotiations on an India-US trade deal.