US President Joe Biden has visited Japan for consultations with allies on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s assertiveness in the Pacific as tensions rise at home over whether to raise the ceiling of the national debt.
Before boarding the presidential plane, the president canceled a historic stopover in Papua New Guinea and a key visit to Australia amid a standoff with Republicans over an increase in the government’s borrowing limit federal.
“I cut my trip short to attend the final talks and sign an agreement with the (Republican) majority leader,” Biden said before leaving the White House.
Biden wants to demonstrate American prowess in international affairs and solve economic problems at home.
The president has not abandoned plans to attend the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, where support for Ukraine’s expected counter-offensive against Russian forces is expected to take center stage, as well as questions economic, climate and global development.
In Hiroshima, Biden also plans to meet with the leaders of the Quadripartite Dialogue, which besides the United States includes Japan, Australia and India.
The partnership is meant to serve as a counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific region, which he calls a top priority in the United States’ national security strategy.
The meeting was originally scheduled to take place next week during Biden’s first visit to Canberra and Sydney as president.
The stopover in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, where leaders of Pacific island nations were due to meet for the first such meeting with a US president, was dropped from the agenda altogether. The meeting was meant to be a response to China’s growing military and economic pressure in the region.
Biden said he doesn’t think cutting his visit short will be a win for China.
“Because we always work with allies,” he explained.
“Countries like Russia and China just want us to default so they can point fingers at us and say, look, the United States is not a stable and reliable partner,” the spokesman said. National Security Council, John Kirby. “So this issue is a priority for the president, as it should be.”
However, the volatility associated with the cancellation of the trip could have the opposite effect of the original purpose of Biden’s trip – to strengthen American engagement in the region, said Charles Edel, senior adviser and chair of the Australian Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“It will show partners that while U.S. focus on the region, on allies, and partners is central to U.S. foreign policy, domestic policy imposes limits on U.S. contacts and possibly U.S. fiscal commitments,” he said. he said last week. . “And I think that’s something that will be talked about a lot.”
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