Australia’s prime minister Albanese on Wednesday confirmed that a Quad summit has been canceled after US President Joe Biden postponed his visit to Australia. Speaking to reporters Anthony Albanese said that the leaders of the four-nation Quad, which also includes the US, Japan, and India, expect to meet on the sideline of the G-7 meeting in Japan this weekend.
“The Quad Leaders’ Meeting will not be going ahead in Sydney next week. We, though, will be having that discussion between Quad Leaders in Japan,” Albanese said, according to a transcript published on the premier’s official website.
“All four leaders – President Biden, Prime Minister Kishida, Prime Minister Modi and myself – will be at the G-7, 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,” he said. Albanese’s statement came after the White House announced that Biden is scrapping planned visits to Australia and Papua New Guinea after the G-7 summit in Japan to instead focus on talks in Washington on the nation’s debt limit.
“I had a discussion with President Biden in the early hours of this morning. He expressed very much his disappointment at being unable to come to Sydney for the Quad Leaders’ Meeting and address the Parliament that had been scheduled for Canberra next week,” said Albanese. However, Albanese added that he will visit the US later this year. But he also confirmed that his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will visit Australia next week. “We are in discussions with the Quad leaders over today. We’ll make further announcements about that, but Prime Minister Modi would certainly be a very welcome guest here next week,” he said.