WILMINGTON: US President Joe Biden met the leaders of Japan, India and Australia to discuss the challenges a rising China poses to their countries, ahead of a farewell summit in his Delaware hometown on Saturday.

The talks in Wilmington, in the twilight of Biden’s one-term presidency, reflect the importance that the 81-year-old has placed on the so-called “Quad” group as a counterweight to Beijing. In a personal touch, Biden hosted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his home in the city for private one-on-one meetings on Saturday.

He hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese there on Friday night. The media were given no access to the meetings. Biden posted pictures on social media of him with Albanese and then with Kishida in a wood-paneled drawing room in his house, and showing them the view of a lake from a verandah.

The White House said in readouts of Biden’s meetings with the Australian and Japanese leaders that they had discussed “their shared concerns about the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China’s) coercive and destabilising activities, including in the South China Sea.” Both statements also said the leaders backed “maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” — referring to tensions over Taiwan, the self-governing democracy that China claims as its territory, to be reunited by force if necessary.

Later on Saturday, the leaders travel to Biden’s former high school in Wilmington for a formal four-way summit, followed by an event for his “Cancer Moonshot” initiative and then a dinner. Kishida, who like Biden is also on his way out of office, and Modi will hold a separate meeting later on Saturday, officials said.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said China would be “high on the agenda” at the summit, against a backdrop of tensions with Beijing, particularly over a series of recent confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea.

‘Quad will endure’

As Biden tries to establish his legacy after dropping out of November’s US presidential election and handing the campaign reins to Kamala Harris — who was not invited to the summit — US officials said there will be “deliverables” from the meeting.

They include an expansion of maritime security cooperation and the first joint coast guard exercises between the four nations, featuring a meeting on a US vessel. The summit takes place ahead of a US presidential election that is on a knife-edge, with Harris and Republican former president Donald Trump — who spent his last presidency decreasing US engagement abroad — neck-and-neck.

The Quad grouping dates back to 2007, but Biden was the first to set up leaders’ summits and has strongly pushed it as part of an emphasis on international alliances after the

isolationist Trump years. US officials played down any risk to the grouping, whoever ends up in the Oval Office in Jan 2025. “We are quite confident in the fact that the Quad will endure,” the senior administration official said.

For the United States, Australia and Japan, the Quad is also a long-term courtship of India. New Delhi has historically been insistent on its non-aligned status when it comes to contests between superpowers.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2024