WILMINGTON: On Saturday, US President Joe Biden was overheard on a hot mic telling the leaders of Australia, India, and Japan that an assertive China is “testing us.” His comments carried the risk of undermining a summit statement that purposefully omitted any reference of Beijing.
The remarks were made as Biden welcomed Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a final meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden’s hometown.
In what were ostensibly private statements to the so-called “Quad,” Biden was heard saying, “China continues to behave aggressively, testing us all across the region.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to Biden, was attempting to “buy himself some diplomatic space, in my view, to aggressively pursue China’s interest” in addition to his attention on “domestic economic challenges.”
Error prior to Modi, Kishida, and Albanese runs the risk of compromising the summit statement that omitted Beijing
However, he maintained that Washington’s recent “intense efforts” to lower tensions—which included a call with Xi in April—were assisting in averting war.
During the conference, all four countries made meticulous diplomatic efforts to stress that their grouping is about more than merely being a counterweight to China, but the hot mic gaffe threatened to undermine those efforts.
Despite expressing concern about tensions on China’s borders, the four presidents did not specifically reference China in their unified statement following the conference.
Their statement stated, “We are deeply concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas.”
The leaders denounced “coercive and intimidating manoeuvers” in the South China Sea, but they did not identify who was responsible for the actions.
Meanwhile, China and Japan have long been at odds over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
As they have done in the past, the leaders instead made vague remarks about maintaining the region “free and open” and discussing “challenges” on the geopolitical front.
The US presidential election in November, which pitted isolationist former president Donald Trump against Biden’s political heir Kamala Harris, cast another shadow over the summit.
No matter what the political climate, Biden insisted, the group would persevere.
In his public remarks, Biden told the leaders, “While challenges will come, the world will change because the Quad is here to stay,” just before journalists were herded out.
When reporters asked Biden if the Quad would survive the election on November 5, he responded, “Way beyond November.” Much beyond November.
Here to stay
Modi made a similar promise, which Washington, Canberra, and Tokyo will applaud as they seek New Delhi, which has never united with them historically.
“Our message is that the Quad is here to stay,” declared Modi, who will host the Quad summit in India the following year.
With concerns about his age, Biden withdrew from the US presidential race in July, but he packed his farewell summit with personal touches.
The four-way summit was held at his old high school in Wilmington, and he had already invited each of the leaders to have private, one-on-one conversations in his Wilmington home.
He remarked, “I’m so happy you could visit my house and see where I grew up.”
The leaders also announced funding for Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot” initiative, which aims to combat cervical cancer. This is a very personal issue for Biden, as his oldest son Beau passed away from brain cancer.
The private sessions at Biden’s house were not open to the media.
On social media, Biden shared photos of himself with Albanese and later with Kishida in his home’s wood-paneled drawing room, where he also showed them the view of a lake from a porch.
The conference, according to the White House, demonstrated how Biden prioritized foreign ties.
As Trump, who has praised the leaders of North Korea and Russia and threatened to remove the United States from organizations like NATO, gets closer to becoming office, more and more people are wondering what would happen.
