WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden will welcome the president-elect Donald Trump for a traditional post-election meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the White House announced Saturday.

Such a meeting is customary between the outgoing president and the new president and is intended in part to mark the beginning of a peaceful transfer of power within the framework of American democracy.

But President Trump, a Republican, did not host Biden, a Democrat, for a session after the 2020 election, when Trump lost his re-election bid.

Trump ran for president again four years later and defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, on Tuesday. Trump is the first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election.

The White House said Biden called Trump last Wednesday to congratulate him and invite him to meet in the Oval Office. Their meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m.

In a speech Thursday, Biden said he assured Trump “that I will direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition.” This is what the American people deserve.

Asked about Trump as he left church Saturday in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he was spending the weekend, Biden responded, “I’m going to see him on Wednesday.”

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Associated Press writer Moriah Balingit in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, contributed to this report.

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