Biden was set to join Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as guests of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for the Quad leaders summit on May 24 in Sydney.
But the American leader is embroiled in crucial domestic political negotiations, including an attempt to raise the national debt ceiling, prompting a reassessment of the trip even as security preparations for his arrival in Australia were underway.
Biden still plans to leave for Japan this week for a Group of Seven summit.
He will return to the United States on Sunday, according to a statement from the White House.
“The president spoke with the Albanian prime minister today to inform him that he is postponing his trip to Australia,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“He also invited the prime minister for an official state visit at a time to be agreed upon by the teams.”
Jean-Pierre said the Quad remained a “priority” for the Biden administration.
“This is vital to our ability to advance our foreign policy goals and better promote global stability and prosperity,” it said.
“We look forward to finding other ways to engage with Australia, the Quad, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands Forum leaders in the coming year.”
Jean-Pierre said the reason for Biden’s decision was to make sure Congress would work to raise the debt ceiling before the deadline.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that if the debt ceiling, essentially the upper limit on the amount of money the government can borrow, is not increased by June 1, the country could default on your debts and risk falling into a recession.
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Biden was also scheduled to travel to Papua New Guinea for a potential advocacy announcement, and was scheduled to address the federal parliament in Canberra.
Albanese confirmed that he had spoken with Biden.
“The president and I agreed that we would work to reschedule his visit to Australia as soon as possible,” he said.
“I also hope to visit Washington later this year for a state visit to the United States.”
Albanese said he was speaking with fellow Quad leaders Modi and Kishida about their travel arrangements.
“In the meantime, I look forward to meeting the prime ministers and the president at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima on May 20-21,” he said.