Biden hosts Quad world leaders at his Delaware home and school as he seeks to leave a legacy with a personal touch

President Joe Biden’s lakeside home in Delaware has been transformed from a family home into a secure command center. This weekend, it will be a top location as he hosts three world leaders to discuss how to push back against Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific.

What the leaders of Australia, India and Japan will make of the impoverished city of Wilmington, Delaware, remains to be seen.

But as Biden seeks to leave a legacy and strengthen international alliances, he is turning the Quad summit into a deeply personal affair.

You can bet the leaders will get a tour of his home and maybe even a ride in his Corvette.

After meeting at his home on Saturday (actually located outside Wilmington in the upscale Greenville neighborhood), they conclude their conversations over dinner at his high school, Archmere Academy.

In his 2008 memoir, Biden described weeding the school gardens, cleaning windows and painting the iron fence as part of a program to help pay tuition.

And above all, it is the place where, after overcoming a stutter, he was able to give his first public speeches.

But in the past year, his home has gained some notoriety as the place where he kept secret documents in his garage, next to his beloved 1967 Corvette Stingray.

Maritime security is at the top of the agenda as China seeks to counter Chinese arms trade and illegal fishing fleets.

Perhaps the questions about what happens after November 5 remain unsaid. A victory for Donald Trump will increase fears that Washington is withdrawing from its traditional alliances.

In addition to Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will also leave office at the end of this month.

“You will see a number of different signals from this meeting and the results that the Quad is a bipartisan institution that is here to stay,” a senior US official told Reuters.

The group will also discuss the following topics: health security, cancer treatment, technology and infrastructure measures.

The Bidens’ home in Greenville, just outside Wilmington, Delaware

Biden’s 1967 Corvette Stingray, kept in a garage at his Wilmington, Delaware, home, is his pride and joy. Secret documents were kept next to it

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, including territory within exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam. It also claims territory in the East China Sea disputed by Japan and Taiwan.

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

Xi has objected to the Quad grouping, seeing it as an attempt to encircle Beijing and escalate the conflict.

“It’s no secret that this is a partnership that, while not directed against China, seeks to provide 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 intimidation is unacceptable and would be met with coordinated action by this coalition of like-minded countries,” said Lisa Curtis, an Asia policy expert at the Center for a New American Security and a former U.S. administration official.

Such a move, which could also involve the coast guard, would demonstrate that the Quad has a security element, despite Indian sensitivities about the need for the group to avoid the defence domain, Curtis said.

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