Quad Is More Relevant Than Ever, Says White House Ahead Of Summit

The upcoming Quad summit in Delaware will show that the four-country group is more strategically aligned and more relevant than ever before, the White House said Wednesday.

"We believe that you'll see coming out of this summit that the Quad is more strategically aligned and more relevant than ever before," John Kirby, White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Director told reporters at a news conference in Washington.

Kirby's comments came ahead of US President Joe Biden's hosting of the other three Quad leaders from Australia, India, and Japan in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday.

Kirby said the current Quad Summit will be the first time that the US has hosted foreign leaders in Wilmington, the president's hometown.

"And he's very excited about that, about showing them a place and a community that shapes so much of the public servant and the leader that he became. It's also a reflection of his belief that like politics, foreign policy is also personal," he said.

Kirby said Biden will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese individually, and later in a plenary.

Kirby said over the last more than three years, Biden has made it a priority to invest in rebuilding America's network of alliances and partnerships across the Indo-Pacific.

"So think about AUKUS, for instance, or the trilateral Camp David summit with Japan and South Korea or the first ever US-Japan-Philippines Leaders' Summit in April," he said.