Biden adds a personal touch to Asia-Pacific diplomacy in his final months in office

WILMINGTON, Delaware. – President Joe Biden is looking to showcase the Indo-Pacific partnership he has cultivated since taking office when he hosts the leaders of Australia, Japan and India in his hometown on Saturday, while also keeping an eye on his own legacy.

When Biden entered the White House, he sought to transform the so-called Quad, which until then had only met at the level of foreign ministers, into a leadership-level partnership as he sought to steer U.S. foreign policy away from conflicts in the Middle East and toward threats and opportunities in the Indo-Pacific. This weekend's summit is the fourth in-person meeting of the leaders and sixth overall since 2021.

Biden added a personal touch to the meeting – possibly the group's last before he leaves office on Jan. 20 – by opening his home in Wilmington, Delaware, to each of the leaders and hosting 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 all came to the sleepy town of Wilmington for the meetings before appearing at the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week.

“He wanted to spend a private moment with them to further develop those relationships,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “That's what this is about.”

On Friday afternoon, Biden welcomed Albanese to his sprawling pond-side home in a wooded area several miles west of downtown. He was also scheduled to receive Kishida and Modi there on Saturday before convening all world leaders for consultations at Archmere Academy in nearby Claymont.

News reporters and photographers are prohibited from covering Biden's one-on-one meetings with heads of state and government, and Biden will not hold a press conference, Jean-Pierre said.

At the summit, the heads of state and government wanted to announce new initiatives to strengthen maritime security in the region – including increased coast guard cooperation in the Pacific and Indian Oceans – and improved cooperation in humanitarian aid operations. The measures are intended to counterbalance an increasingly self-confident China.

The Biden administration promised that the leaders would issue a joint statement containing the strongest language on China and North Korea that the four countries had ever agreed to.

The White House said the leaders would also make an announcement about Biden's Cancer Moonshot Initiative, a longtime passion project of the president and his wife that aims to reduce cancer deaths. The Bidens' son, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46.

As Biden's term comes to an end, the White House also celebrated the bipartisan, bicameral formation of a “Quad Caucus” in Congress to ensure the longevity of the partnership regardless of the outcome of the November election.

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Madhani reported from Washington