Following the cancellation of US Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stated that next week’s Quad leaders summit in Sydney will not take place.
Instead, all four presidents are set to get together this weekend in Japan during the G7 summit.
Next week’s visit to Sydney by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to Mr. Albanese, is still a possibility.
As he attempts to negotiate an agreement with Republicans to stop the US from defaulting on its debts at the end of this month, Mr. Biden has been forced to focus on domestic politics.
He “understandably had to make that decision because that has to be solved prior to 1 June — otherwise there are quite drastic consequences for the US economy, which will flow on to the global economy,” Mr. Albanese added.
Why Biden was forced to leave Sydney
Despite his disappointment at not being able to host the summit in Sydney, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese understands that Australia would also be on the hook if the United States defaults on its loans, according to Carrington Clarke.
In addition, the prime minister stated that Mr. Biden was “disappointed” that he couldn’t visit Australia and that the Quad leaders will try to meet on the sidelines of the G7 leaders conference in Hiroshima.
President Biden, Prime Minister Kishida, Prime Minister Modi, and I will all be there at the G7 summit on Saturday and Sunday in Hiroshima. We are trying to get together during that time, and I’ll speak with President Biden bilaterally, he added.
We do not yet have a set time for that arrangement.
Although officials in all three nations were still attempting to clarify their arrangements, Mr. Albanese said it was still feasible that both Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would visit Sydney the following week.
“We are currently having talks with the Quad leaders over there. Prime Minister Modi would undoubtedly be a very welcome guest here next week, but we’ll make more announcements about that, he said.
“Prime Minister Kishida, of course, our recent successful bilateral meeting in Perth took place at the end of last year.
The connection with Japan is crucial, and Prime Minister Modi gave me the warmest welcome when I visited India in March.
Mr. Biden’s declaration has angered Australian officials who have spent months planning for the historic summit and increased concerns in Canberra about how the United States’ overseas diplomacy is once again being undermined by political division in the country.
In a barely veiled jab at Congressional Republicans who have been pressing for further spending cutbacks from the White House during debt ceiling discussions, Mr. Albanese has cited the “blocking and disruption that’s occurring in domestic politics in the United States” as the reason behind the president’s choice.
The US president was scheduled to arrive here with an entourage of more than 1,000 people for a historic visit that was also anticipated to create significant disruption to Sydney’s CBD until his Australia-Papua New Guinea leg of the trip was cancelled.
Barack Obama made his last trip to Australia as the president of the United States in 2014.
The opposition in the US stated many people in PNG will be “disappointed” by the news, but Prime Minister James Marape of Papua New Guinea has not yet commented.
The country in the Pacific has already spent a significant amount of time and money getting ready to welcome Mr. Biden and his entourage, and Mr. Marape has frequently described the visit as a turning point in his nation’s history.
