Indo-Pacific leaders expand maritime security cooperation at Biden’s farewell summit

Thursday, 26 September 2024 15:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the United States announced plans for new security initiatives in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, while outgoing US President Joe Biden is hosting counterparts from the Quad grouping established out of shared concerns about China.

Biden welcomed Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a four-way meeting near his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, to stress the importance of maintaining the Quad, which he sees as a signature foreign policy achievement, before he leaves office in January.

Senior Biden administration officials told reporters ahead of the meeting that the leaders would announce plans to expand an Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, launched two years ago to include the Indian Ocean region.

The leaders announced a plan for joint coast guard operations that will see Australian, Japanese and Indian personnel spend time on a US Coast Guard vessel. The countries also announced plans for increased military logistics cooperation. Before the meeting, officials said the leaders would step up work to provide critical and security technologies, including a new open radio access network, to the Pacific islands and Southeast Asia, regions of intense competition with China, Washington’s main strategic competitor. A health initiative highlighted cooperation in combating cervical cancer as well. Analysts said the expected outcomes would mostly build on work that has already been done within the Quad, which Biden elevated to summit level in 2021. Saturday’s meeting will be Quad’s sixth leader meeting. Journalists were granted access to initial remarks from the leaders before a meeting on Saturday. However, after journalists were asked to leave, officials were briefly caught on hot mics discussing China during what was intended to be a private meeting.

“Our first topic of discussion is China,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken after reporters were escorted out.

Moments later, Biden said, “We believe Xi Jinping is looking to focus on domestic economic challenges and minimise the turbulence in China diplomatic relationships. And he’s also looking to buy himself some diplomatic space, in my view, to aggressively pursue China’s interest.” “China continues to behave aggressively, testing us all across the region. It is true in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, South China, South Asia and the Taiwan Strait,” Biden continued. “It’s true across the scope of our relationship, including on economic and technology issues. At the same time, we believe intense competition requires intense diplomacy.” The President also pointed to his phone call with China’s President Xi Jinping earlier this year, as well as national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s trip to China this summer, adding that “we see this engagement as important for conflict prevention and crisis management amidst our strategic competition.”

The hot mic comments about China came after Sullivan was asked earlier on Saturday about whether the four leaders will focus on China.