United States President Joe Biden is set to host the fourth in-person Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington, Delaware, on September 21. The announcement was made by the White House on Thursday. The next Quad Summit will be hosted by India.
The Summit will witness the participation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan. This Quad meet will be the last time that all the current leaders of the alliance will gather as both Kishida and Biden will be stepping down from their offices.
Biden had recently announced that he would not be running again for a second tenure at the White House, as he nominated Kamala Harris. Japan’s Kishida too had stated clearly that he did not seek re-election as Liberal Democratic Party’s chief.
This will be the first time that Biden would be hosting foreign leaders in Wilmington as US president.
“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. These include health security, natural disaster response, maritime security, high-quality infrastructure, critical and emerging technology, climate and clean energy, and cybersecurity,” a statement by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre read.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has made elevating and institutionalising the Quad a top priority, from the first-ever Quad Leaders Summit at the White House in 2021, to annual Summits since then. In recent years, Quad Foreign Ministers have met eight times, and Quad governments continue to meet and coordinate at all levels,” it added.
The foreign ministers from the Quad nations engaged in wide-ranging talks in Tokyo in July this year. The meeting was focused on cementing the cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. The foreign ministers had also announced their plans to expand the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) program to the Indian Ocean to improve the monitoring of the strategic waters of the region.