President Biden leaves for Japan, cancels the rest of his visit to Asia

2023-05-17 17:08:56, Kosova & Bota CNA

US President Joe Biden leaves today for Japan to attend the high-level meeting of the Group of Seven most industrialized countries in Hiroshima. President Biden canceled part of a trip he had planned for next week to continue debt ceiling talks with congressional leaders. The United States risks defaulting on its financial obligations if the White House does not reach an agreement with the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives before June 1.

American President Joe Biden is leaving for Japan on Wednesday evening to participate in the G7 high-level meeting, which this time is being held in the city of Hiroshima. However, he is determined to return to the US on Sunday, canceling the planned visit to Papua New Guinea and Australia next week.

The reason for this is the risk that the United States may not be able to pay its financial obligations, since there is still no agreement on the debt ceiling between the White House and Congress. Tuesday's meeting between House Republican leaders and the president failed.

"I am confident that we will continue to make progress toward avoiding fulfilling America's responsibility as a leader on the world stage. However, I am postponing the Australian leg of the trip and my stop in Papua New Guinea to return for final negotiations with congressional leaders. I spoke to the Prime Minister of Australia, Albanese, today and let him know what was going on. In the last meeting there was a consensus with congressional leaders that the debt default should not happen. Our economy would fall into recession. It would destroy retirement accounts, it would increase the cost of borrowing," said President Biden.

After speaking with Mr Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that a meeting of the leaders of Japan, the US and India, which was to be held in Sydney next week, has been cancelled.

"The deadlock and division that is going on in domestic politics in the United States, with the issue of the debt ceiling, means that this must be resolved before June 1, otherwise there are quite drastic consequences for the American economy, which will then have repercussions in the global economy. It is understood that President Biden had to make this decision. He, however, said he was looking forward to visiting at a future date as I will be going to the United States for a state visit later this year," said Antohny Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia .

President Biden leaves for Hiroshima on Wednesday evening for meetings with leaders from the world's major industrial nations, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Leaders will try to find a way to counter Beijing's use of so-called "economic coercion" or the practice of threats and economic investments in third countries in order to subjugate them to Chinese will.

The G7 is expected to do this through export controls and restrictions on investment from their countries in China, while trying to slow China's technological progress and reduce its dominance in the global supply chain./ VOA