WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden seeks to highlight the Indo-Pacific partnership he has nurtured since taking office by hosting leaders of Australia, Japan And India in his hometown on Saturday, also with an eye on his legacy.
When Biden entered the White House, he sought to raise the bar so called Quadwhich until now had met only at the foreign minister level, to a leaders-level partnership as he seeks to reorient U.S. foreign policy away from conflicts in the Middle East and toward threats and opportunities in the Indo-Pacific region. This weekend’s summit is the fourth in-person and sixth global gathering of leaders since 2021.
Biden gave a personal touch to the engagement — potentially the group’s last before he leaves office on Jan. 20 — by opening his home in Wilmington, Delawareto each of the leaders and organizing a joint meeting and formal dinner at the high school he attended more than 60 years ago.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have arrived for meetings ahead of their appearances at the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week.
“You’ve heard the president say repeatedly that all politics is personal, all diplomacy is personal,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters as the meetings were about to begin. “And developing personal relationships has been at the heart of his approach to foreign policy as president. So opening his home to the leaders of India, Japan and Australia is a way for him to show, not just say, that these leaders matter to him.”
On Friday afternoon, Biden hosted Albanese at his home, on a pond in a wooded area a few miles west of downtown. On Saturday, he hosted Kishida and Modi there before gathering all the leaders for consultations at Archmere Academy, near Claymont.
Sullivan described the atmosphere of the meeting with Albanese as that of “two guys — one in each other’s home — talking broadly about how they see the state of the world.” He said Biden and Albanese also swapped stories about their political careers.
Reporters and photographers were not allowed to cover Biden’s one-on-one meetings with the leaders, and Biden did not plan to give a news conference – a question-and-answer format typical of such international summits.
As part of the summit, leaders are expected to announce new initiatives to strengthen maritime security in the region – including enhanced coast guard collaboration in the Pacific and Indian Oceans – and improve cooperation on humanitarian response missions. The moves are meant to serve as a counterweight to an increasingly assertive China.
Sullivan said he expected Biden and Modi to discuss Modi’s recent visits to Russia and Ukraine as well as economic and security concerns about China. Modi is the most prominent leader of a nation that maintains a neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sullivan said Biden would stress “that countries like India should step up and support the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity” and that “every country, everywhere, should refrain from providing inputs to Russia’s war machine.”
The meeting is also an opportunity for Biden and Kishida to say goodbye. Biden and Kishida, both of whom are leaving office amid declining public support, have seen strengthening security and economic ties between the United States, Japan and South Korea as among their most important accomplishments. The two leaders met one-on-one Saturday morning.
The improvement in relations between Japan and South Korea, two nations with deep and complex histories that have struggled to stay on good terms, comes amid troubling developments in the Pacific, including North Korea’s advances in its nuclear program and China’s growing assertiveness.
The United States and Japan are negotiating in a rare moment of tension in their relations. Biden, along with presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, have opposed a $15 billion offer from the Japanese government Nippon Steel to acquire US Steel.
Biden administration officials said this week that a formal review of the proposed deal by a U.S. government committee has not yet been submitted to the White House and may not come before the Nov. 5 election.
Sullivan dismissed speculation that the timing of the report’s release might suggest Biden has second thoughts about opposing the deal.
The Biden administration has promised that the leaders will issue a joint statement containing the strongest language yet adopted by the four countries toward China and North Korea.
The White House said the leaders would also unveil an announcement related to Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative, a longtime passion project of the president and his wife, Jill Biden, aimed at reducing cancer deaths. Beau passed away in 2015 at the age of 46 from brain cancer.
White House officials said the leaders will unveil details of a new collaboration aimed at reducing cervical cancer in the Indo-Pacific region.
As Biden’s term draws to a close, the White House is also celebrating the formation of a bipartisan, bicameral “Quad Caucus” in Congress, meant to ensure the longevity of the partnership regardless of the outcome of the November elections.
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Madhani reported from Washington
