HIROSHIMA, Japan — President Joe Biden tried to reassure world leaders on Saturday that the United States would not default as he consulted with the heads of Australia, Japan and India in a meeting of the so-called Quad partnership that had been hastily rescheduled because of the debt limit standoff back in Washington.
Hoping to avert an outcome that would rattle the global economy and prove to be a boon to Beijing, Biden opened his third day in Japan at the annual Group of Seven meeting of the world’s most powerful democracies with a briefing from his staff on the latest fits and starts in talks over how to raise the federal debt limit.
The president also squeezed in meetings aimed at challenging China’s buildout across the Indo-Pacific. The Quad members originally had planned to meet in Sydney this week but got together instead on the sidelines of the G7 so Biden could return to Washington earlier today in hopes of finalizing a deal to increase the U.S. borrowing limit before the government runs out of cash to pay its bills.
Biden said he felt there was headway in the talks with GOP lawmakers.
“The first meetings weren’t all that progressive. The second ones were; the third one was,” he said before a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “And then, what happens is the carriers go back to the principals and say, ‘This is what we’re thinking about.’ And then people put down new claims. I still believe we’ll be able to avoid a default.”
