Fact Check: Did Joe Biden Form the Quad?

President Joe Biden this week met with the leaders of Australia, Japan and India, which form the Quad, an international leadership group aimed at strengthening ties between the four countries.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday joined Biden, who said "the Quad will continue to work for global good, for the welfare of mankind, and for peace and prosperity."

However, at a press conference held the next day, Biden suggested that he was the formative organizing force behind the group, a claim that was scrutinized online.

The Claim

During a press conference, held on May 21, 2023, President Joe Biden claimed that two years into his administration he had formed "the Quad."

Biden said: "I bet you—I would—maybe some of you thought it, but I doubt many people in this audience or any other audience would have said that two years after being elected, I'd be able to convince India, Australia, Japan and the United States to form an organization called the Quad to maintain stability in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea."

Biden's comments were picked up by the Twitter account RNC Research, which is managed by the Republican National Committee.

RNC Research added: "The Quad was re-established in 2017 under President Trump."

The Facts

Biden's trip to Japan was also meant to take him to Sydney and Canberra in Australia for a meeting of the Quad leaders from the U.S., Australia, India and Japan. Albanese on Wednesday confirmed the cancellation of the summit, which was elevated to the leader level in 2021 for the first time since its inception.

It's really not clear what Biden meant when he claimed that he brought the group together two years into his presidency.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Quad was formed around 2004 following the Indian Ocean tsunami, described as a "loose grouping rather than a formal alliance." While created in response to the disaster, it has since evolved as a body that discusses a wider agenda, including matters of security and economic stability.

There is no record that Biden, then a Delaware senator, was involved in its formation.

As previously reported by Newsweek, and noted by RNC Research, the group was reinvigorated under former President Donald Trump, and former national security advisor Robert O'Brien said it would be "viewed historically as one of the singular foreign policy achievements of the Trump administration."

It was during the Biden administration that the group held its first in-person summit in 2021.

However, this is clearly different from what Biden expressed at this week's press conference and maybe another gaffe that even he has recognized as a trope of his public speaking.

This week, Biden was quoted saying that his son died in Iraq. Beau Biden, the president's eldest son, served in Iraq with the Delaware Army National Guard from 2008-2009, where he was awarded the Bronze Star for his service.

Following his death in 2015, Beau Biden was posthumously given the Delaware Conspicuous Service Cross, presented for "heroism, meritorious service and outstanding achievement."

However, Beau Biden died of brain cancer on May 30, 2015, at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, not in Iraq.

Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment.

The Ruling

False.

Joe Biden did not form the Quad two years into his presidency. The group has existed since 2004, following a tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean.

While the group held its first in-person summit in 2021, there is no evidence that Biden was responsible for the group's formation.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team