The leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the United States are expected to agree Saturday on expanding maritime cooperation, such as through improving the compatibility of their countries’ coast guards, in the face of China’s relentless assertiveness in the South China Sea and nearby waters.
U.S. President Joe Biden chose his home state of Delaware to host a four-way summit of the grouping known as the Quad, hoping to spotlight his building up of the partnership as a vital component of his administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
The meeting at Biden’s former high school, Archmere Academy, located near Wilmington, is widely seen as about his legacy and an opportunity for him to showcase what has been accomplished by his administration’s key foreign policy since its inception more than three and a half years ago.
It is the first time that Biden, who abandoned his bid for a second term in July, has invited foreign leaders to his hometown as president.
White House officials have said that Biden opted for a private setting to reflect the close personal relationships he has fostered with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
A senior Biden administration official said the leaders are set “to demonstrate the Quad partners are more strategically aligned than they have ever been” through ongoing projects in areas spanning from maritime security and infrastructure to natural disaster response and emerging technologies.
“Most importantly, that the Quad is here to stay,” the official said, expressing confidence that the grouping of the four major democracies in the region, sharing the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, will last many years beyond Biden’s tenure.
During the summit, the leaders are set to agree on several new initiatives, including starting joint coast guard exercises as well as offering other countries in the region more sophisticated assets and training to help them monitor and enforce laws in their territorial waters, according to U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The leaders are also expected to agree on allowing their forces to share cargo space on planes and vessels for the purposes of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions.
In addition to one of the officials, diplomatic sources said earlier that a U.S. Coast Guard vessel for the first time will welcome coast guard members from all three of the other countries to be on board for a joint exercise in the Indo-Pacific.
Among the other areas of cooperation expected to be announced are the deployment of new communications infrastructure, known as Open Radio Access Network, and efforts to eradicate cervical cancer, building on their experience of working together during the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to the sources.
The focus on the communications network, designed to avoid reliance on specific companies’ technology, reflects concerns among the Quad over China’s growing ties with and massive investment in Pacific island countries.
In their joint statement to be released Saturday, according to the senior Biden official, the leaders are also set to use “some of the strongest language that the Quad has ever produced, particularly on the South China Sea and on North Korea.”
Biden elevated the grouping, which dates back to 2004 in the wake of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, to the leader level in 2021. He hosted the first in-person Quad summit in September of that year in Washington.
For Kishida, the fourth in-person Quad summit will also be his last, as he announced in August that he will not run in Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election, set to be held on Friday.
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