By TN Ashok
Washington, May 18 : US President Joe Biden today showed he placed the domestic debt ceiling crisis over foreign affairs by cancelling both the Quad summit in Sydney and meetings with the leaders of the Pacific rim country leaders , the 1st US president who was scheduled to set foot on.
With just 16 days to go for the June 01 deadline, US President Biden is anxious that the debt ceiling crisis standoff with the Congress ends and the borrowing limit is raised so that the US treasury can fulfil interest payment obligations to investors globally as otherwise it would have a crippling effect on stock exchanges across the world, multiple media reports said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said “ No USA, NO Biden, No Quad meeting”, and yet hoped that Biden would still make it to Sydney at a later date after the US debt crisis is resolved, reports from Sydney said adding that Australia was happy that another key member of the Quad Indian PM Narendra Modi will still make the trip.
Biden’s visit to Papua New Guinea was clearly orchestrated by the US department of state to send a clear signal to the region that US would take a lot of interests where decades of neglect had led China’s enlarged engagement strongly with its time and investments.
The Chinese leader Xi Jinping had spent several days in Papua New Guinea in 2018 when he went on a state visit and attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit there, reports recalled.
While America appreciates Biden’s urge to return home quickly after the G7 summit in Hiroshima, cancellation of the Quad and Papua New Guinea has sent a starkly different message – that the dysfunction in the political atmosphere as between the Democrats and the Republicans does not augur well overseas as it disrupts US agenda and commitment to overseas countries interests, political strategists said.
Biden’s cancellation is being perceived in Australia as a repeat of a familiar pattern, that’s of not living up to the expectations it sets,” said Mihai Sora, a former Australian diplomat in the Pacific, who is now a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney think tank. “And it will make fruitful material for detractors seeking to undermine U.S. influence in the region.”
Even before the Quad meet and Papua New Guinea of Pacific leaders was sealed, it was expected that the June 1 deadline for resolving the debt crisis standoff would cast its shadow. However, U.S. officials had a misplaced trust that it would go ahead and send a strong message about American commitment to the region.
Even as the debt limit uncertainties continued to stalk White House and Congress in a deadly stalemate and fears of a bankruptcy of the US treasury, the challenges of Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupting the global demand supply chains, The US focus and strategy would not “drift,” a senior administration official, not willing to be identified said.
Biden’s decision to cancel overseas commitments raises questions on commitments as fierce competition ensued between the engagements of the US and China for global influence in the Pacific Rim countries with geo political dominance politically and investments with money power.
“These visits are really important to Pacific island countries,” said Iati Iati, a Pacific expert at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. “It’s not just the government, the whole country gets up for them, and if you saw the fanfare associated with Xi Jinping’s visit, Biden was probably in for a similar reception. So this will be a big let-down for Papua New Guinea, the reports said.