President Biden tried to reassure world leaders on Saturday that the United States would not default as he consulted with the heads of Australia, Japan, and India in a meeting of the so-called Quad partnership that had been hastily rescheduled because of the debt limit standoff back in Washington. Hoping to avert an outcome that would rattle the global economy and prove to be a boon to Beijing, Biden opened his third day in Japan at the annual Group of Seven meeting of the world’s most powerful democracies with a briefing from his staff on the latest fits and starts in talks over how to raise the federal debt limit, the AP reports.
The president also squeezed in meetings aimed at challenging China’s buildout across the Indo-Pacific. The Quad members originally had planned to meet in Sydney next week, but got together instead on the sidelines of the G7 so Biden could return to Washington earlier on Sunday in hopes of finalizing a deal to increase the US borrowing limit before the government runs out of cash to pay its bills. Biden said he felt there was headway in the talks with GOP lawmakers. “The first meetings weren’t all that progressive, the second ones were, the third one was,” he said before a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. "I still believe we’ll be able to avoid a default and we’ll get something decent done."
Until Saturday, Biden had largely stayed out of the public eye at the summit, forgoing big public statements and leaving Friday’s leader dinner early. He has been spending time instead by a video monitor in a room next to his hotel suite, where aides in Washington have been keeping him apprised of the back-and-forth of debt limit talks. National security adviser Jake Sullivan acknowledged that world leaders have pressed Biden about the standoff in Washington. But press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that, while there was intense interest in how the president would resolve a domestic showdown that has geopolitical ramifications, there was no panic—at least not yet. "It’s not a hair-on-fire type of situation," she said.
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On the margins of the summit, Biden held talks with Albanese in lieu of the now-scrapped visit to Australia. US officials said the trip would be rescheduled, and Biden has invited Albanese to Washington for a state visit. Biden apologized for skipping Australia. Albanese said he understood the circumstances. "I would have done exactly the same thing," he told Biden. The leaders signed a compact pledging to deepen their partnership on developing the raw materials used in clean energy technologies—as they each seek to move supply away from reliance on China.
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