U.S. President Joe Biden has canceled his planned trips to Papua New Guinea and Australia after his visit to Hiroshima, western Japan, for a Group of Seven summit later this week, the White House said Tuesday.
The Biden administration has decided to shorten the Asia-Pacific itinerary to focus on negotiations with congressional leaders on the debt ceiling in order to avert an unprecedented U.S. default, which could occur as early as next month.
"President Biden will return to the United States on Sunday following the completion of the G-7 summit in order to be back for meetings with Congressional leaders to ensure that Congress takes action by the deadline to avert default," the White House said in a statement.
In Sydney, Biden had planned to hold Quad talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss China's growing military capabilities and economic power in the Indo-Pacific region.
On Wednesday, Albanese said the Quad summit would not go ahead in Sydney next week, and he instead hopes to meet the leaders from Japan, the United States and India in Hiroshima.
After speaking to Biden over the phone earlier in the day, Albanese said he will cancel the Quad summit slated for May 24 but he and the leaders of the three countries are attempting to hold talks on the sidelines of the G-7 meeting.
"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," Albanese told reporters in Tweed Heads, New South Wales, according to the prime minister's office.
Before Australia, Biden was also scheduled to travel to Papua New Guinea, a stop that would have marked the first visit to the Pacific country by a sitting U.S. president.
Biden had planned to meet in the capital Port Moresby with leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum, an 18-member group that promotes cooperation among mostly small countries in Oceania.
The stop was intended to be part of Washington's efforts to make up ground in the region, where Beijing has taken the initiative by rapidly expanding its influence.
On the domestic debt-ceiling issue, the Biden administration has been at odds with Republican leaders, who control the House of Representatives, over the country's $31.4 trillion borrowing limit.
The Democratic president has been asking Republicans to raise the limit without conditions to avert a U.S. default. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other Republican leaders have said they will not authorize such an increase without an agreement to slash future spending.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told a press conference Tuesday that the leaders of the world's democracies understand the importance to the global economy of the United States avoiding a default.
"And they know that our ability to pay our debts is a key part of U.S. credibility and leadership around the world," he said.
Kishida has previously said the G-7 leaders will offer flowers at the Peace Memorial Park when they visit Hiroshima.
"(Biden) plans to visit the memorial and to pay his respects to the lives of the innocents who were killed...in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima," Kirby confirmed.
