WILMINGTON, Del. (Diya TV) — President Biden will host the final Quad summit of his presidency in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware on September 21, 2024. The summit brings together Australia, India, and Japan; this will be Biden’s fourth in-person meeting with these counterparts. 

The summit was originally to be hosted in India, but was transferred to Wilmington because world leaders had coincidentally converged on New York City to participate in the United Nations General Assembly. In choosing to host the summit in his hometown instead of New York City, Biden exercises his preferred manner of running diplomacy: personal and dedicated to reinforcing alliances with the United States.

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, was originally created to facilitate the coordination of disaster relief after parts of southern Asia were decimated by the tsunami in 2004. However, the alliance was re-ignited in 2017, based on shifting attitudes globally toward China’s rising influence. The nations within the alliance are Australia, India, Japan, and the United States. Separately, they will work to foster “a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific” as a check on rising influence in the South China Sea by China.

On the summit agenda is advancing cooperation in health, disaster relief, and maritime security. Concretely, leaders would take home deliverables including a global health and health security initiative, humanitarian collaboration that has been enhanced, and strengthened efforts in the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, according to the White House.

This summit is also significant as it comes ahead of the U.S. presidential election, and Biden’s tenure is going to end in January. Though there may be a change of guard in the United States, officials are all set to gear up for the security and confidence the Quad can ensure does not change, irrespective of the party in power. To that end, the administration is positioning itself to secure long-term funding and legislative support for Quad initiatives so that the program continues after Biden.

The summit will also mark the farewell for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is stepping down after opting not to seek re-election. His successor is likely to keep the promise to continue the commitment by Japan to the Quad and buttress stability in the alliance.

The Quad has been viewed as a pet project of the Biden administration, which puts emphasis on foreign leaders and diplomacy across the globe. For example, it is reported that in his last stint in office, Biden will be attending the G20 Summit in Brazil and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Peru. His administration will be following up with the contentious issues bothering its relationship with China, such as the U.S. alliances in the Indo-Pacific, reports the Associated Press.

Hosting the summit in Wilmington would follow a long history of U.S. presidents conducting meetings in personal settings, as with George W. Bush’s ranch meeting with Vladimir Putin or his predecessor’s NATO summit in Chicago.

The Quad is an important player in the Indo-Pacific. Although China has often called it ‘Asian NATO,’ it does not have a mutual defense treaty. Instead, it attempts to strengthen economic, diplomatic, and security cooperation between its member states to counterbalance China’s quest for dominance in the region.

In the run-up to the summit, global attention is riveted on whether Biden’s efforts will influence the future of U.S. foreign policy, regardless of what may happen in the presidential election. Because Kishida has quit and because Biden might be on his way out as well, it could well mark the point at which the Indo-Pacific region and the greater international order begins to turn.