Australia cancels Quad summit in Sydney after Biden pulls out

A summit of the Quad countries scheduled to be held in Sydney next week will be postponed after US President Joe Biden pulled out because of debt ceiling negotiations in Washington, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says.

A summit of the Quad countries scheduled to be held in Sydney next week will be postponed after US President Joe Biden pulled out because of debt ceiling negotiations in Washington, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says.

The leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the United States will instead meet at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Japan this weekend, Albanese said on Wednesday (May 17). Biden cancelled a trip to Sydney on the second leg of his upcoming Asia-Pacific trip, which was also to have included a visit to Papua New Guinea.

Albanese said it was “disappointing” that Biden decided he could not come for the May 24 summit, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were also supposed to attend.

“The decision of President Biden meant that you can’t have a Quad leaders meeting when there are only three out of the four there,” Albanese said.

The four leaders are planning to meet in Hiroshima during the G7 summit, he said.