2023-05-17 02:00:34
© Reuters. US President Joe Biden 5/15/2023 REUTERS/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
By Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An ongoing crisis over the U.S. debt ceiling prompted U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday to postpone plans to visit Papua New Guinea and Australia so he can return to Washington.
Biden still leaves on Wednesday en route to Hiroshima, Japan, for a three-day G7 summit.
He would later become the first sitting US president to visit Papua New Guinea, where in the capital Port Moresby, he would witness the signing of a new strategic agreement with Micronesia and meet with 18 Pacific island leaders.
In Sydney, Australia, Biden had plans to attend a meeting of the four-nation group known as the Quad – made up of the US, Japan, Australia and India –, formed with the aim of combating China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific.
Biden told reporters he spoke by phone with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to explain his decision. “Debt default is simply not an option,” said Biden, who is in talks with Republican lawmakers.
Albanese said in a statement that Biden apologized for being unable to visit Australia and would work to reschedule the visit at the earliest opportunity.
Biden’s team also spoke with Papua New Guinea’s leaders to inform them of the decision, the White House said. The Papua New Guinea embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the postponement.
The Treasury has estimated that the US will default as early as June 1 if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Nandita Bose and David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by John Mair in Sydney)
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