President Joe Biden will host his second and final Quad leaders’ summit in his home state of Delaware on September 21, the White House announced Thursday.
Biden is planning to host the three other leaders of the group, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan. The summit will be held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, happening concurrently in New York.
The leaders are expected to enhance cooperation including the existing Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, a key initiative aimed at countering China’s aggression in the South China Sea.
“The Quad Leaders Summit will focus on bolstering the strategic convergence among our countries, advancing our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and delivering concrete benefits for partners in the Indo-Pacific in key areas,” said White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement Thursday.
Biden hosted the first Quad leaders’ summit at the White House in 2021. The group has since met twice more in person in Japan. In a reflection of the importance of the group, Biden has hosted all the leaders for subsequent state visits at the White House.
India was scheduled to host this year, but the four leaders agreed that New Delhi will instead do so in 2025.
“President Biden’s visit to India in September 2023 for the G20 summit meant that it was difficult for him to return to India in January 2024, on the sidelines of India’s Republic Day in January 2024, as per India’s original planning,” said Aparna Pande, director of the Hudson Institute’s Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia.
Both India and the U.S. then became caught up in their own electoral cycles, making travel and summit-hosting respectively challenging, Pande told VOA.
With Biden and Kishida set to leave office, the Wilmington summit will be the last gathering of the current leaders. Whoever wins the U.S. November election, whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump, will be invited to the Delhi summit next year.
