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Quad Summit cancelled as Biden postpones Australia visit due to domestic issues
US President Joe Biden decided not to go ahead with a planned visit to Australia because of stalled domestic debt ceiling negotiations
The Quad Leaders Summit scheduled for May 24 in Sydney has been cancelled following US President Joe Biden’s decision not to go ahead with a planned visit to Australia because of stalled domestic debt ceiling negotiations.
The White House announced early on Wednesday that Biden will return to the US after the completion of the G7 Summit in Japan on May 20, instead of travelling to Papua New Guinea and Australia as earlier planned. Biden spoke to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to inform him of the decision.
Albanese confirmed to the media on Wednesday morning that the Quad Leaders Summit in Sydney had been cancelled. “This is a decision that’s been made overnight...in the United States. The Quad leaders’ meeting will not be going ahead in Sydney next week,” he said.
He suggested the leaders of Quad, which groups India, Australia, Japan, and the US, could meet on the margins of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
“We though will be having that discussion between Quad leaders in Japan...The Quad is an important body and we want to make sure that it occurs at leadership level, and we’ll be having that discussion over the weekend,” Albanese said.
He added, “All four leaders – President Biden, Prime Minister Kishida, Prime Minister Modi and myself – will be at the G7, held in Hiroshima on Saturday and Sunday. We are attempting to get together over that period of time, as well as I’ll have a bilateral discussion with President Biden. At this stage, we haven’t got a time locked in for that arrangement.”
Albanese also said a planned bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Australia might still go ahead.
There was no immediate word from Indian officials on whether there would be any changes to Modi’s itinerary for a three-nation visit that was announced on Tuesday. The external affairs ministry had said Modi would embark on a visit to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia on May 19 to participate in outreach sessions of the G7 Summit on May 20, the Summit of the Forum for India–Pacific Islands Cooperation on May 22, and the Quad Leaders Summit on May 24.
Biden had planned to travel to Papua New Guinea and Australia to meet leaders of Pacific Island states and to participate in the Quad Leaders Summit and address the Australian Parliament.
However, the White House said he would be cutting short his visit to return to the US on Sunday to be “back for meetings with Congressional leaders to ensure that Congress takes action by the deadline to avert default”. Amid sharp divisions between the Democrats and Republicans, talks over the debt ceiling have reached a critical point. The Republicans have sought spending cuts in exchange for raising the ceiling and the US Treasury could run out of funds as early as June 1.
The US president’s decision is expected to lead to disappointment in both the Pacific Islands and Australia, where the two crucial meetings were scheduled against the backdrop of China’s growing assertiveness across the region.
Biden was set to be in Papua New Guinea at the same time as Modi and reports had suggested both leaders would make a concerted bid to woo leaders of Pacific Island states, who are being aggressively courted by China. The Quad Leaders Summit was expected to push ahead with the grouping’s agenda of working for an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific governed by accepted rules and norms, while also focussing on the region’s most pressing challenges.
