Biden, 'Quad' leaders to talk maritime security as China tensions grow

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tensions brewing in Asia's trade-rich waters top the agenda as U.S. President Joe Biden welcomes leaders from Australia, India and Japan to his Delaware hometown for a diplomatic push to counter China in the waning months of his presidency.

Biden heads to Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday ahead of the Quad Leaders Summit, where the leaders are expected to speak about conflict between Beijing and its neighbors in the South China Sea who have repeatedly clashed over disputed territory, U.S. officials told Reuters.

On the agenda: stepped-up security cooperation in the Indian Ocean and progress to track illegal fishing fleets operating in the waters of the Indo-Pacific, most of which were Chinese.

Biden is set to hand over the presidency after a Nov. 5 election that will deliver the White House to his vice president, Kamala Harris, or Republican Donald Trump, who has vowed a confrontational approach with China and voiced skepticism about traditional U.S. alliances.

Whether the Quad can survive Biden's presidency and keep tensions at bay is an open question. In addition to the handover at the White House next year, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will step down this month.

"You'll see a number of different signs throughout this meeting and the deliverables that the Quad is a bipartisan institution that is here to stay," a senior U.S. official said.

The Quad is also expected to discuss health security, cancer treatment, technology and infrastructure measures.

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, including territory inside exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam. It also claims territories in the East China Sea contested by Japan and Taiwan. China also views self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory.

Biden has vowed to compete with China without letting their differences veer into conflict, and he is set to speak again soon with Chinese President Xi Jinping. But his desire to focus on the relationship with China has been sidetracked by conflict in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.

Xi has objected to the Quad grouping, seeing it as an effort to encircle Beijing and ramp up conflict.

"It's no secret that this is a partnership that, although it is not against China, seeks to offer alternatives to China," the senior Biden administration official said.

"A new Quad maritime security initiative would send a very strong signal to China, that its maritime bullying is unacceptable, and that it would be met with coordinated action by this coalition of like-minded nations," said Lisa Curtis, an Asia policy expert at the Center for a New American Security and former U.S. administration official.

Such a move, which could involve the Coast Guard, would demonstrate that there is a security element to the Quad, despite Indian sensitivities on the need for the grouping to avoid the defense domain, Curtis said.

"China's recent maritime aggression, could be changing the equation for India, and could be prompting India to become a bit more open to the idea of Quad security cooperation," she said.

Trump has said he plans to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week. India plans to host the next Quad meeting, an early expected stop for whoever wins the United States election in November.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Krishn Kaushik. Editing by Heather Timmons and Michael Perry)