Sydney: A Quad summit scheduled for Sydney next week won't take place without US President Joe Biden, according to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Biden postponed his trip due to debt ceiling talks in Washington.
After Biden postponed a trip to Sydney on the second leg of his upcoming Asia trip, which also included a stop in Papua New Guinea, Albanese announced that the leaders of Australia, the United States, India, and Japan would instead meet this weekend at the G7 in Japan.
"The Quad leaders' meeting scheduled for Sydney the following week will not take place. However, the leaders of the Quad will discuss it in Japan, Albanese said at a press conference.
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Next week, a bilateral event in Sydney with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may still go on, according to Albanese.
Regarding whether Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida would still be travelling to Sydney the following week, Albanese remained silent. On Wednesday, Nikkei reported that he would not be leaving.
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The informal Quad group advocates for an open Indo-Pacific. Beijing interprets it as an effort to rebuff its expanding influence in the region. 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 region, according to senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute Richard Maude.
"Turning up is the catchphrase in the area. Half the battle is won by showing up. The optics aren't good because China keeps popping up, said Maude, a former Australian intelligence chief, during a panel discussion on the Quad on Wednesday.
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India and Australia have been invited to the Japan summit even though they are not members of the G7 group of seven wealthy countries, which also includes the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.