Due to Debt Ceiling... Quad Summit Canceled "Diplomatic Loss"

The Quad (security consultative body of the United States, Japan, Australia, and India) summit scheduled to be held next week in Sydney, Australia, has been tentatively canceled due to the absence of U.S. President Joe Biden.

According to major foreign media on the 17th (local time), Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated at a press conference that the Quad summit would not be held next week without President Biden. He said, "President Biden has informed us that he will postpone this visit due to issues related to the debt ceiling negotiations," and added that they plan to reschedule the visit to Australia as soon as possible.

As concerns grew over the unprecedented risk of a default due to the failure of President Biden and Congress to find a breakthrough in negotiations over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, the White House announced the previous day that President Biden would cancel his visit to Australia, visit only Japan, and return home immediately on the 21st.

Prime Minister Albanese added that he fully understands the cancellation of President Biden's visit to Australia because if the issue is not resolved within the negotiation deadline, the impact on the global economy would be significant.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left), U.S. President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are greeting each other at the Quad Summit held in Tokyo on May 24, 2022.
[Image source=AP News]

He continued, "President Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will all attend the Group of Seven (G7) summit held this weekend in Hiroshima, Japan," and said, "We are trying to meet together during that period." Although Australia and India are not G7 members, they are attending the summit as invited countries.

When asked about the possibility of Prime Minister Kishida visiting Australia even if President Biden does not come, Albanese only said that discussions are ongoing. Earlier, Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that Prime Minister Kishida would not visit Australia.

President Biden was originally scheduled to depart for Japan on the 17th to attend the G7 summit, then visit the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea and Australia before returning home. No sitting U.S. president has ever visited Papua New Guinea, and the last visit to Australia was by former President Barack Obama in 2014.

There are also assessments that the cancellation of President Biden's visit to Papua New Guinea and Australia could be a diplomatic loss in the strategic competition between the U.S. and China over the Indo-Pacific region.

Richard Maude, senior researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), said, "With President Biden, the first U.S. president to plan a visit to Papua New Guinea, canceling the trip, the U.S. risks falling behind China in the competition to check China and secure diplomatic influence in the Indo-Pacific region."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.