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Australia's new Prime Minister Albanese, US President Biden in Tokyo: "It's really quite extraordinary"
Photo: Yuichi Yamazaki/POOL/EPA
The new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese does not have much time to settle into his new post.
Just hours after his victory in Australia's general election on Saturday and his lightning-fast swearing-in procedure on Monday, the head of government traveled to Japan for his first summit.
US President Joe Biden paid tribute to him at the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) meeting in Tokyo, an informal format for talks attended by Australia, India, Japan and the US.
He doesn't know how Albanese can keep up with the tight program.
"It's really quite extraordinary - straight out of the campaign," Biden said.
Biden signaled understanding if Albanese was hit by a great deal of fatigue: "So if you fall asleep while you're here, that's fine."
At the quad meeting, however, serious issues are also debated.
Biden reiterated that the United States would provide military support to Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
The United States continued to pursue a policy of "strategic ambiguity" with regard to Taiwan.
The US has assured Taiwan of support in building up its defense capabilities, but has not expressly promised to come to the island's aid in the event of war.
"The policy hasn't changed at all," Biden said.
China accuses Biden of 'playing with fire'
The statement immediately caused a stir and sharp reactions from China, even though Biden had already made similar statements last October.
China accused Biden of "playing with fire."
Taiwan was not officially on the agenda at the quad meeting.
However, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine had raised fears that China might now attempt to attack the island nation.
Statement against attempts to "violently change the status quo"
Japan, the US, India and Australia joined forces to oppose attempts to "violently change the status quo" in one region of the world, said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Since "Russia's invasion of Ukraine is shaking the fundamental principles of the international order," Biden, Albanese, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and he "confirmed that unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force will never be tolerated anywhere," Kishida said .
fek/AFP/Reuters