Biden to host Australian, Indian, Japanese leaders for Quad summit next weekend

​​​​​​​By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Joe Biden will host his counterparts from Australia, Japan and India for a leader-level meeting of the Quad Indo-Pacific alliance next weekend, the White House announced Thursday.

The Sept. 21 meeting, which will include Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will take place in Biden's hometown of Wilmington, Delaware -- a first since he became president in 2001.

The executive mansion billed the choice of the venue as "a reflection of his deep personal relationships with each of the Quad Leaders, and the importance of the Quad to all of our countries."

"The Biden-Harris Administration has made elevating and institutionalizing the Quad a top priority, from the first-ever Quad Leaders Summit at the White House in 2021, to annual Summits since then," spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

"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," she added.

That will include discussions of joint natural disaster response efforts, maritime security, cybersecurity and technological cooperation.

A Quad summit was canceled last year after Biden had to return to Washington to lead negotiations on the US debt ceiling. That meeting instead took place on the sidelines of a May 2023 G7 meeting in Japan.