Anthony Albanese said a previously scheduled bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi might happen.
US President Joe Biden postponed his travel to Australia due to debt ceiling negotiations in Washington. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese indicated on Wednesday that the Quad summit would only take place with him in Sydney the following week.
After Biden canceled a trip to Sydney on the second leg of his forthcoming Asia trip, which was also supposed to include a visit to Papua New Guinea, Albanese said the leaders of Australia, the United States, India, and Japan would instead meet at the G7 in Japan this weekend.
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“The Quad leaders meeting will not be in Sydney next week. We, though, will be having that discussion between Quad leaders in Japan,” At a press conference, Albanese spoke.
Next week’s bilateral event in Sydney with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may still go forward, according to Albanese. Regarding whether Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida would still be traveling to Sydney the next week, Albanese remained silent.
The informal Quad group advocates for an open Indo-Pacific. Beijing interprets it as an effort to rebuff its expanding regional influence.
The cancellation of Biden’s trip to Papua New Guinea, which would have been the first visit by an American president to an independent Pacific island nation, could hinder Washington’s efforts to compete with Beijing for influence in the area, according to a senior scholar at the Asia Society Policy Institute Richard Maude.
“The mantra in the region is all about turning up. Turning up is half the battle. China turns up all the time, so the optics aren’t great,” Former Australian intelligence chief Maude spoke during a Wednesday panel discussion on the Quad.
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India and Australia have been invited to the Japan summit even though they are not members of the G7 club of seven wealthy countries, including the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
