To solve domestic problems, US President shortens his trip to Asia

Biden had previously planned his first visit to Papua New Guinea to counter Beijing's influence in the Pacific .

Following the White House announcement, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida withdrew his plans to visit Australia. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese later announced the cancellation of the Quad summit, scheduled to take place in Sydney next week. Instead, Mr. Albanese said the leaders of Australia, the US, India and Japan would meet at the G7 summit in Japan this weekend.

President Biden is facing public debt problems and must negotiate with Congress to prevent the prospect of a default by the leading economy, which is predicted to happen on June 1.

According to CNN, the May 16 discussion between President Biden and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made some progress. Mr. Biden called the meeting with congressional leaders "productive" and said he believed the parties would "continue to make progress to avoid default." Mr. McCarthy also said an agreement could be reached by the end of this week, but noted that the differences between him and the White House were still quite large.