UNITED STATES: Next week’s Quad summit, which had been planned for a long time and comprising leaders from India, Australia, the United States and Japan in Sydney, has been called off, as per Anthony Albanese, Australian Prime Minister’s Wednesday statement owing to Joe Biden, US President’s pulling out of his arrival.
The Australian Prime Minister also mentioned that brisk conversations could still be initiated between the leaders arriving in Japan.
The Australian leader mentioned, “The Quad is an important body, and we want to make sure that it occurs at the leadership level, and we’ll be having that discussion over the weekend.”
In order to cater to the weeklong Asia tour that was planned to commence in Hiroshima, Japan, for the Group of Seven (G7) leaders summit, Biden has made plans to visit Sydney. The trip also encompassed a visit to Papua New Guinea to attend a meeting with the leaders of the Pacific Island.
The visit to Japan will remain intact, but Biden, however, had to cancel the additional trips in light of Washington’s current debt ceiling meetings as per the White House’s confirmation on Tuesday.
On May 24, Biden was supposed to meet with Albanese, Indian PM Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio for a round of informal security discussion, widely considered to be a reaction to China’s aggressive position in the area.
The last-minute postponement, which also prompted Biden to put off his visit to Papua New Guinea, comes as the US seeks to reestablish its security connections in the Pacific amid escalating animosity with Beijing. Nevertheless, Washington’s controversial domestic politics blocked the US president from undertaking what would have been an essential voyage to Asia.
Albanese stated, “It is definitely not in the interests of the US people, but it is also because the US plays a key role as the world’s largest economy. This debt ceiling standoff, which they are currently engaged in, has consequences for the global economy as well.”
According to a statement released by the White House a month ago, the leaders were expecting to talk about strengthening their collaboration on an assortment of challenges, particularly climate change, maritime domain awareness, and significant and emerging technologies.
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