Rubio Convenes First EDAG Meeting to Coordinate U.S. Economic Statecraft

The State Department's activation of a Biden-era interagency body signals a bipartisan institutional continuity in using diplomatic levers to advance AI and economic policy goals abroad.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is convening the first meeting of the Economic Diplomacy Action Group (EDAG) on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, according to a State Department official who spoke with The Hill. The EDAG was established during the Biden administration approximately two years ago but had not yet held a formal convening under either administration until now.

The committee is composed of federal agency leaders whose combined mandate is to "shape the contours and focus of U.S. economic statecraft to advance U.S. foreign policy priorities," the State official told The Hill. Among the listed priorities is "American leadership in AI." The State Department's description of the group's authority includes coordinating and leveraging the full range of U.S. government programs and capabilities in service of economic and diplomatic objectives.

The EDAG's structure places it within the State Department's institutional framework, though the full list of participating federal agencies represented at Wednesday's meeting has not been made public as of this writing. The Hill's report did not name which cabinet-level or sub-cabinet officials attended. The specific policy agenda items, beyond the stated priority of AI leadership, have not been disclosed in any public document reviewed by The Congressional Times.

The activation of the EDAG under a Republican-led State Department, using an organizational body created under Democratic leadership, reflects a degree of institutional continuity on economic statecraft. The Biden administration's original executive documents establishing the EDAG would detail its founding mandate; those records are available through the Federal Register and State Department archives.

What remains unknown is which agencies were seated at Wednesday's table, what specific deliverables or timelines were assigned, and whether the meeting produced any formal policy directives or memoranda. State Department meeting readouts, if published, and any interagency directives that result from the EDAG session would be the public records that would answer those questions.