President Joe Biden said there’s “work to do” on the global stage as he headed to Japan on Wednesday to consult with allies on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s assertiveness in the Pacific at the same time that a debt limit standoff looms at home.
With high-stakes talks to head off a federal default are underway in Washington, Biden pledged to remain in “constant contact” with negotiators in the Capitol while he conducts international diplomacy.
The president departed Washington aboard Air Force One a day after scrapping plans for a historic stop in Papua New Guinea and a key visit to Australia amid the showdown with House Republicans over raising the federal debt limit. The three-nation trip had been meant as a triumphant global leadership showcase, and instead threatened to become a truncated reminder of how partisan disagreements have undercut U.S. standing on the global stage.
“I’ve cut my trip short in order to be here for the final negotiations and sign the deal with the majority leader,” Biden said in remarks before departing the White House. “I’ve made clear America is not a deadbeat nation, we pay our bills.”
The president was still set to attend the annual Group of Seven summit of advanced democracies in Hiroshima, where sustaining support for Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive against Russia is set to take center stage, alongside economic, climate and global development issues. More than a year after Moscow’s invasion, Biden and allies have armed Kyiv with ever-more-advanced weaponry and maintained deep sanctions on Russia’s economy, though maintaining resolve has grown more challenging in Washington and other global capitals.
While in Hiroshima, Biden also plans to sit down with the so-called Quad leaders of Japan, Australia and India, a partnership meant to serve as a counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific, a region that he bills as a top priority in U.S. national security strategy. That meeting had originally been scheduled to occur next week on what would have been his inaugural visit to Canberra and Sydney as president.
Off the agenda entirely is a stop in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, where Pacific Island leaders were to gather for a first-of-its-kind meeting with a U.S. president. It was meant to be a rejoinder to China’s increasing military and economic pressures in the region. The U.S. has recently opened embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga and has expressed a desire to reverse a decades-long pullback in the region.