The Quad leaders summit planned for Sydney has been cancelled after US President Joe Biden pulled the pin yesterday citing mounting pressure on the home front.
The much-touted summit next week would have been Biden’s first visit down under.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had hoped but that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida would still attend but had his hopes dashed today.
“The Quad leaders meeting will not be going ahead in Sydney next week,” Albanese said today.
“We’ll be having that discussion between Quad leaders in Japan. The Quad is an important body and we want to make sure that it occurs at leadership level and we’ll be having that discussion over the weekend.”
All four leaders will still meet in Japan on the weekend for the G7 Summit. Biden is then returning to the US for final negotiations to raise the nation’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit.
Albanese said he understood why Biden had to head home early.
“That has to be solved prior to 1 June otherwise there are quite drastic consequences for the US economy, which will flow on to the global economy,” he said.
Albanese said it was still possible that Modi or Kishida would visit Sydney next week and would be very welcome.
