Anthony Albanese’s Quad summit blow and a noisy Bob Carr

Indian PM Narendra Modi’s planned visit to Australia next week will go ahead as the ­Albanese government works to salvage a diplomatic win from the cancellation of the Quad meeting.

US President Joe Biden at an Emily's List function in Washington on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned visit to Australia next week will go ahead as the ­Albanese government works to salvage a diplomatic win from the cancellation of Wednesday’s long-planned Quadrilateral Security Dialogue meeting in ­Sydney.

The Prime Minister said he was disappointed at President Joe Biden’s decision to postpone his Sydney trip to try to avert a US debt default, blaming “the blocking and disruption that’s occurring” in US domestic politics.

He said, however, that Mr Modi “will be here next week” for a bilateral leaders’ meeting, and for a major Indian community event at Homebush Stadium.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida – the other Quad leader – also cancelled his planned visit to Sydney, Tokyo confirmed late on Wednesday.

Mr Albanese and Mr Modi are set to push for closer trade and investment co-operation, stronger defence ties, and new green technology partnerships in their coming bilateral meeting.

The planned Quad meeting will now be held in Hiroshima on the sidelines of this weekend’s G7 summit, while Mr Albanese revealed his planned trip to Washington later this year had been upgraded to an official state visit.

The Prime Minister said Mr Biden would “make his way down to Australia” for a visit some time in the future. “It’s disappointing that (Mr Biden) believed he was unable to come down at this point in time, but he will be a welcome guest at a future time,” Mr Albanese told ABC radio.

Former foreign minister Bob Carr, now a pro-China commentator, seized on the news of Mr Biden’s cancellation, saying there was now “serious uncertainty about projected American behaviour”. He said Australia should avoid behaving like a US “client state”, declaring a second Biden term was likely to be marked by presidential “frailty and cognitive decline”, with public appearances handed over to the “unsteady hand” of US Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr Biden cancelled his trip less than 12 hours after Mr Albanese said the Sydney Quad summit was going ahead, suggesting it was a snap decision or that the Prime Minister’s office was not across White House thinking.

Mr Biden was also forced to cancel a trip to Papua New Guinea on Monday, revealing he will return home straight after the G7 meeting to try to convince congressional Republicans to lift the debt ceiling or face an economic crisis. “I’m cutting my trip short,” he said. “I’m postponing the Australia portion of the trip and … my stop in Papua New Guinea, in order to be back for the final ­negotiations with the congressional leaders.”

Former Australian intelligence chief Richard Maude said cancellation of the Biden trip and Quad summit would “play into a Chinese narrative about American decline” but the turn of events should be kept in proportion.

“There is a very long contest in the Indo-Pacific ahead, and it’s not going to be decided by a single Quad meeting,” he said.

“The ultimate value of the Quad doesn’t rest on the Sydney summit. Australia knows that one thing … worse than President Biden not making it to the Quad would be a US debt default. That would really play into the Chinese narratives around American politics and political disarray.”

Mr Biden’s change of plan will force the cancellation of his scheduled meeting with Pacific Island Forum leaders in Port Moresby on Monday but it’s understood Mr Modi will keep his commitment to visit the PNG capital, where he will hold an India-Pacific dialogue with regional leaders.

Former US diplomat Evan Feigenbaum, from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was brutal in his assessment of the domestic chaos that forced Mr Biden to up-end his travel schedule. “It’s tough to compete with China in the Pacific when you’re busy sinking your own boat,” Dr Feigenbaum tweeted.

“How do we think we look to the rest of the world?”

The Atlantic Council’s Josh Lipsky said it was “extraordinarily hard” for the US to argue for economic unity against China and Russia “when dysfunction is coming from inside the house”.

Mr Albanese and Mr Biden were also due to have had a bilateral meeting in Sydney which has now been postponed.

It’s understood one of the items on the agenda was the need to break down barriers to the sharing of US intellectual property to support the AUKUS submarine and technology partnership.

Defence Minister Richard Marles warned in a speech on Wednesday that the success of AUKUS would require “seamless” transfer of sensitive information between the US and Australia.

Additional reporting: AFP