WASHINGTON, May 16 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Joe Biden won’t journey to Papua New Guinea and Australia later this month as initially deliberate because of the ongoing stalemate in negotiations with congressional leaders to deal with the debt ceiling, a number of U.S. media retailers reported Tuesday, citing sources conversant in the matter.
Biden would have turn into the primary sitting U.S. president to go to the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea, to be adopted by a visit to Sydney for the leaders’ summit of the Quad, which incorporates the United States, Japan, India and Australia.
Biden will nonetheless go to Hiroshima, Japan, to take part within the three-day Group of Seven (G7) summit starting Friday.
Earlier within the day, John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, instructed the common White House press briefing that the White House was “reevaluating” the post-Japan a part of Biden’s journey.
“What I can speak to is the G7 and going to Hiroshima. The president is looking forward to that. We are taking a look at the rest of the trip,” Kirby instructed reporters.
News of the shortening of the presidential abroad journey got here as Biden was assembly with congressional leaders from each the Democratic and Republican events within the Oval Office over the debt ceiling situation.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed Monday that the United States could default on its debt obligations as quickly as June 1 if the partisan combat drags on with out a settlement.
Biden will depart Washington on Wednesday, stopping over Anchorage, Alaska, earlier than arriving in Japan on Thursday, in accordance with the journey steerage introduced beforehand by the White House.