Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that next week’s Quad leaders’ summit has been scrapped, following US President Joe Biden’s decision to cancel a much-anticipated visit to Australia because of ongoing debt-ceiling negotiations with Republicans in Washington.
At a press conference in Tweed Heads this morning, the prime minister acknowledged that “the Quad leaders meeting will not be going ahead in Sydney next week”.
He said he expected that all four leaders - himself, Biden, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida - would instead attempt to have side meeting at the G7 summit in Hiroshima this weekend, and that he would have a separate bilateral meeting with Biden.
The White House announced on Wednesday morning that the US president’s scheduled visit to Sydney for the Quad meeting had been postponed, meaning he will no longer address a joint sitting of parliament in Canberra.
Next Wednesday’s meeting with three of the world’s most powerful leaders was set to be a triumphant moment for Albanese as a global statesman, coming just days after the first anniversary of his election victory.
Albanese said Biden had contacted him in the early hours of Wednesday to inform him of the cancellation.
“President Biden called me this morning to discuss his upcoming visit to Australia,” Albanese said in a statement.
“The president apologised that he would now have to postpone this visit because of the unfolding difficulties he is facing in his negotiations with the US Congress over the US government debt ceiling.”