CANBERRA, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled out a so-called quadruple summit in Sydney without US President Joe Biden, saying the four leaders will speak at this weekend’s Group of Seven meeting in Japan. .
Albanese said Wednesday that he understands why Biden pulled out of the summit to focus on the debt ceiling talks in Washington, because they are crucial to the economy. The summit that included Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was scheduled to take place on May 24.
“The blockade and the interruption that is occurring in the internal politics of the United States, with the issue of the debt ceiling, means that, because that has to be resolved before June 1; If not, there will be quite drastic consequences for the US economy, which will flow into the global economy; it is understandable that he had to make that decision,” Albanese told reporters.
Biden «expressed a lot of disappointment» at not being able to attend the Sydney summit and the national capital, Canberra, a day earlier to address Parliament, Albanese said.
The four leaders will soon be together in Japan for the G-7 summit in Hiroshima and plan to meet there, he said.
“The Quad is an important body, and we want to make sure it happens at the leadership level, and we’ll have that discussion over the weekend,” Albanese said.
He suggested that Modi could still visit Sydney next week, noting that Modi was scheduled to give a speech to the Indian diaspora at a 20,000-seat stadium on Tuesday.
“We will make further announcements on that, but Prime Minister Modi would certainly be a very welcome guest here next week,” Albanese said.