President Joe Biden postpones Australia trip; Quad summit in Sydney cancelled
US President Joe Biden was scheduled to participate in the third summit of the Quad leaders along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Premier Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
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FollowUS President Joe Biden has postponed a visit to Australia, the second leg of his upcoming Asia trip, to concentrate on important debt-ceiling negotiations to avoid a disastrous federal default, prompting the cancellation of Quad leaders' meeting in Sydney. Due to the unpredictability and ongoing discussions with the opposition Republican Party to prevent America from going into financial default for the first time in history, Biden decided to postpone the Australia and Papua New Guinea portions of his trip.
Along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Premier Fumio Kishida, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Biden was slated to attend the third in-person meeting of the Quad leaders in Australia.
In order to attend the G7 leaders' conference, Biden will still depart for Hiroshima, Japan, on Wednesday. Biden invited the prime minister for a formal state visit to Washington at a mutually suitable time during a phone chat with Albanese to tell him of his choice.
Biden is hosting Modi at the White House on an official state visit on June 22. The two leaders were scheduled to meet in Australia on the sidelines of the Quad summit. However, their planned meeting in Japan on the sidelines of the G7 later this week would be in accordance with the schedule, the White House said.
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Soon after his discussions with the Congressional leadership, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of the Republican Party, Biden made the revelation at the beginning of his speech at the White House's observance of Jewish American Heritage Month.
"I'm shortening my vacation. In order to be present for the final discussions with Congressional leaders, I am postponing my time in Australia and my stay in Papua New Guinea," Biden said.
"I recently met with Australian Prime Minister Albanese to let him know what was happening. At today's meeting of the Congressional leaders, I believe there was a resounding general agreement that going into default on the debt is simply not an option. The recession would hit our economy," the president said.
He further said, "If we allowed that to happen, retirement funds would be destroyed, borrowing rates would rise, Moody's estimated that roughly eight million (80 lakh) Americans would lose their jobs, and our foreign reputation would be severely harmed."
The president took the decision to cut short his vacation and fly straight from Japan to the United States because having Biden out of the country during this crucial time would have made things difficult for his administration.
The Australian Prime Minister Albanese announced on Wednesday that the Quad leaders' summit scheduled for next week in Sydney will not take place as a result of Biden's travel being postponed. The Quad leaders' meeting will not be going ahead in Sydney next week, he said in Tweed Heads, a town in New South Wales.
Meanwhile, the White House reiterated that Quad remains a priority. In November 2017, India, Japan, the US and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence amid China's aggressive behaviour in the region.
(With PTI inputs)
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