First on CNN: Biden to host ‘Quad’ leaders in Delaware hometown as he bolsters foreign policy legacy

By Arlette Saenz and Betsy Klein, CNN

Washington (CNN) — President Joe Biden will welcome the leaders of Australia, India and Japan this month for the final “Quad” summit of his term, adding a personal touch to the event by hosting it in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, senior administration officials tell CNN.

The gathering comes as the president has recalibrated plans for the final months of his term in office, shifting from campaigning for reelection to refocusing his attention to domestic and foreign policy issues, including working to shore up alliances as he prepares a handoff to the next administration.

Biden has long made fostering personal relationships a signature piece of his foreign policy work, making the hometown summit a fitting coda for a partnership that has been central to the president’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific.

The Quad summit, which will include Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, will take place on September 21 ahead of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City, senior administration officials previewed to CNN.

India was initially this year’s host country for the leaders’ event, but officials agreed to move the summit to the US as world leaders traveled to the UN General Assembly, with plans for India to host next year.

Officials said the decision to host the meeting in the president’s hometown instead of on the sidelines of UNGA in New York City was intentional, stressing Biden’s commitment to reinforce his personal relationships in his alliance-building strategy.

White House officials have zeroed in on planning for the summit in recent weeks, looking to incorporate personal touches, including places of significance to the president’s life.

Part of larger strategy to counter China

Biden’s advisers have viewed the decision to elevate the Quad relationship to the leader level in 2021 as key to reinvigorating alliances in the region in the face of China’s growing influence.

“What the Quad really shows us is that the region and our partners were eager for this mini-lateral approach, and that it has indeed paid off in its effort to try to build collective capacity in ways that genuinely allow us to deliver for the region and to help keep it more peaceful and stable, in spite of all the challenges that it faces,” a senior administration official told CNN on Thursday.

The official added, “The act of bringing together these four leading maritime democracies … really is exactly the type of alliance activity we need in this moment.”

The group has met in person three other times — once in the US and twice in Japan — and the president has hosted each leader for a state visit at the White House as he’s sought to deepen cooperation with the countries.

The leaders are expected to have “strategic conversation” and to produce “concrete deliverables” during the summit, including a “major signature initiative in the health and health security space,” a collaboration “in the humanitarian and natural disaster space,” and efforts to build on the existing Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, a key initiative aimed at countering China’s aggression in the South China Sea, the official said.

The meeting will come just weeks before the November election, which world leaders are watching with anticipation as they wait to learn whether they will work with Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump when Biden leaves office in January.

But the leaders also have an eye on setting up the alliance for the future.

“While the Quad is certainly a centerpiece of President Biden’s legacy in the Indo-Pacific, it is also increasingly an institution that you can expect will be here to stay as part of our foreign policy,” the senior official said, previewing future funding to support the alliance through national budgets and “steps to demonstrate that the Quad is a bipartisan initiative that will have support over the long term, including support from the US Congress.”

Kishida also is set to leave office this month after forgoing a reelection bid, setting up a farewell moment next weekend for half of the leaders comprising the Quad. Kishida’s successor, the official said, is expected to “commit fully to the Quad” going forward.

The leaders have developed “deep personal relationships” over the past three years, the official noting that they are facing “common challenges.”

“When these four leaders meet in a room, they could basically finish each other sentences. They know what strategic issues are most salient to the other,” the official said.

Biden focusing on foreign policy in final months

As he enters the lame-duck phase of his presidency, advisers have indicated the president will lean into foreign policy issues as he seeks to bolster his legacy in his closing months in office.

That includes possible travel to the G20 Summit in Brazil and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering in Peru in November. White House officials also are eyeing possible Biden trips to Germany and Africa as soon as October, a source familiar with the matter said.

“The president will be day in, day out engaged with counterparts around the world, engaged with his own national security team to deal with the crises and also seize the opportunities that lie ahead,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a call with political appointees last month.

Biden’s team is also laying the groundwork for a call between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming weeks. Sullivan left open the possibility that the two could meet on the sidelines of upcoming summits in November. China has bristled at times at the United States’ efforts to bolster alliances in the region, including through the Quad partnership.

The Quad summit will mark the first time Biden is welcoming world leaders to his hometown just over 100 miles from the White House since taking office. Last year, he hosted Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at Camp David for a trilateral summit.

There is some precedent for hosting world leaders in a president’s hometown. Former President George W. Bush welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for talks on nuclear weapons in 2001. Former President Barack Obama held the NATO summit in Chicago in 2012. And Trump held sit-downs with world leaders such as Xi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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