He will be back sooner than expected. Joe Biden will return to the White House on Sunday after the G7 summit in Japan to devote himself to tough talks on the public debt, giving up on trips to Australia and Papua New Guinea, the White House said on Tuesday. The US president will return to Washington to meet with the Republican opposition and “ensure that Congress takes action by the deadline for avoid payment default “, which would be unprecedented, said the spokesperson for the American executive, Karine Jean-Pierre, in a press release.
Joe Biden informed Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of the postponement of his visit and officially invited him to the White House, she also said. Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Ma has also been briefed.
Joe Biden still intends to travel to Japan on Wednesday for the G7 summit where he will meet with the leaders of the Quad, the alliance formed by the United States, Japan, Australia and India, said John Kirby , spokesman for the White House National Security Council, during a press briefing. The American president has been deploying intense diplomatic activity for several months with the leaders of the Asia-Pacific zone, in order to tighten American alliances in the face of the rise of China.
Biden “optimistic”
Republicans and Democrats must absolutely agree that Congress authorize the American federal government to take on more debt, otherwise it will no longer be able to, maybe as early as June 1, pay civil servants, pay pensions and social benefits, or repay its creditors. At the risk of derailing the American and global economy, warns the White House.
The American president thus met on Tuesday with the four leaders of his party and of the Republican party in Congress to try to find an agreement. If he said he was “optimistic” after a “frank and productive” meeting, the Republican boss of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy ured him that there was “a lot of work to be done in a short time” to find a middle ground. Joe Biden will meet again this week by telephone with key congressional officials, before seeing them again in person, after returning from a trip to Japan on Sunday.