Anthony Albanese to attend Quad summit in US
The summit – to be held in Wilmington, Delaware later this month – will be the last for Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida.
Anthony Albanese will fly to America to attend the 2024 Quad leaders’ summit on September 21 in Wilmington, Delaware, the hometown of US President Joe Biden, to discuss the key challenges facing an open and stable Indo-Pacific.
It will be the last time that Mr Biden and the outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be able to attend the leaders’ summit alongside Mr Albanese and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Neither Mr Biden nor Mr Kishida are seeking to extend their leadership at the upcoming US and Japanese elections.
Mr Albanese said that Australia was “deeply invested in the future prosperity and stability of the Indo-Pacific” and shared a vision along with the US, India and Japan of a region that was “governed by accepted rules and norms, where all countries can cooperate, trade and thrive”.
“We will work together to shape the kind of region in which we want to live. We are always better off when we act together with our close friends and partners,” the Prime Minister said. “I look forward to meeting with my Quad partners to discuss important challenges facing the Indo-Pacific and strengthening the Quad’s co-operation”.
The summit will be the fourth in-person meeting of the Quad Leaders, with the first being held in September 2021 in Washington DC and last year’s meeting being held in Hiroshima, Japan. India – which was meant to host the summit this year – is scheduled to host the next leaders’ meeting in 2025.
Talks are expected to focus on boosting cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and ensuring the region is free from coercion. Leaders are also expected to discuss strengthening clean-energy supply chains, undersea cable cooperation and how to support maritime security and enhance regional health security.
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