Biden Hosts 'Quad' Leaders

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Facts

  • US Pres. Joe Biden is set to host his counterparts from Australia, India, and Japan in a Quad summit near Wilmington, Del., on Saturday, with reported plans to expand the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness to the Indian Ocean region.[1][2]
  • They are also expected to agree on Quad's first-ever joint Coast Guard exercise, increase military logistics cooperation, provide a new open radio access network, and deliver strong language on the South China Sea and North Korea.[3][4]
  • On Thursday, the US National Security Council's Mira Rapp-Hooper told foreign journalists in a press conference that the summit would feature some 'ambitious announcements' demonstrating the institutionalization of the group.[5]
  • This comes as Biden hopes the alliance, which he has pushed to counterbalance China's rising influence and alleged aggressiveness in the region, will endure as he and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida soon leave office.[4][6]
  • Established as a security dialogue in 2007 under the George W. Bush administration, the Quad was revived during the Donald Trump administration. At the start of his term, Biden elevated the grouping to the leader level.[4][6][7]
  • Meanwhile, the White House Correspondents' Association has raised concerns over the lack of press access to the president's one-on-one meetings with the Quad leaders due to the location chosen — Biden's own residence.[8][9][10]

Sources: [1]Reuters, [2]South China Morning Post, [3]Kyodo News+, [4]CNN, [5]US Department of State, [6]Voice of America, [7]Independent, [8]FOX News, [9]The Hill and [10]The Washington Times.

Narratives

  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Global Times. The Quad is nothing more than a divisive mechanism that the US created to make Australia, India, and Japan its pawns in the Indo-Pacific in an attempt to destabilize the entire region and gain a strategic advantage against China. Given that the three nations can't just turn their back on China, divergence will continue to prevail in the grouping.
  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Council on Foreign Relations. Over the past two decades, the Quad has grown from a humanitarian aid cooperation to a sustainable and solid grouping that wants to keep the Indo-Pacific free and open — but whose agenda goes well beyond traditional security concerns. While there are mutual concerns over Beijing's actions there, this is by no means an anti-China group.

Predictions