At the meeting the two leaders signed an agreement to advance climate and clean energy action between Australia and the United States. Mr Biden said the new Climate, Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Transformation Compact would add a third pillar to the US-Australia alliance.
“We are going to establish climate and energy as the third pillar of the Australia-US alliance. This will enable the expansion and diversification of clean energy supply chains, especially as it relates to critical materials,” he said.
‘An open, stable, secure Indo-Pacific’
Mr Albanese and Mr Biden held a shortened 30-minute meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi around 9.30pm AEST on Saturday night.
Mr Albanese, this year’s Quad chair, opened the meeting in Hiroshima and said it showed the Quad could be flexible after it was forced into a last-minute relocation from Australia to the G7 summit in Japan.
“It’s an example of our resolve,” he said. “We are standing together for an open, stable, and secure Indo-Pacific.”
Mr Biden thanked the group for their “gracious flexibility”, adding that “setting the day is different, but the mission remains the same”,
“Many people are going to look back on the Quad, God willing, in 10, 20, 30 years from now and say you changed the dynamic, not only in the region, but of the world,” the US president said.
“In the last two years we have made enormous progress and are launching new initiatives to keep that progress going.”
He said those initiatives included building secure telecommunications, strengthening cooperation on submarine cables, and joint efforts between private sector to invest in infrastructure and clean energy.
Mr Modi said next year’s leaders summit would be held in India, meaning Australia has missed out on hosting the meeting for some time after this week’s cancellation.
“We are moving forward with a constructive agenda based on shared democratic values,” he said.
PM to visit White House
On Wednesday, Mr Biden cancelled his trip to Sydney, scheduled for next week, to be in Washington to break the impasse in Congress over the US debt ceiling, forcing the meeting to be shifted to Hiroshima where all four world leaders would be in attendance at the G7 summit anyway.
“I still believe we will be able to avoid a default,” Mr Biden said when asked about the state of negotiations.
Following the cancellation of his trip to Australia, the US president said he would host Mr Albanese in Washington for a state visit later this year.
The pair’s Japan meeting marked the sixth time the two have met since Mr Albanese was sworn in as prime minister a year ago.
Their three previous formal meetings were at the Quad leaders summit in Tokyo in May last year, the East Asia summit in Cambodia and the AUKUS meeting in San Diego. They also met on the sidelines of the NATO summit Madrid and the G20 summit in Bali.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are greeted by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, during their arrival to the Quad leaders summit in Tokyo last year. AP
The prime minister also met with UN Secretary General Antonia Guterres on Saturday where Mr Albanese reiterated Australia’s commitment to the multilateral system and discussed support for small island nations.
Mr Albanese was also scheduled to meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday.
Australia faces growing competition in the surge in demand for critical minerals needed for a low-emissions environment, citing the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and similar measures in Canada.