Biden arrives in rainy Japan as U.S. debt crisis casts cloud over G7 meeting
President arrived to stormy weather in Hiroshima, , on Thursday for his meeting with leaders as the U.S. debt crisis cast a cloud over the global summit. Biden hurried down the lower stairs of Air Force One, carrying an umbrella as rain poured down. He is accompanied on the trip by granddaughter Maisy. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel - the former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff - was among the greeters. Biden's first meeting of the summit was with the host, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. 'It's wonderful to see you again - and in your own hometown,' Biden told Kishida at the top of their conversation, at one point accidentally referring to him as Japan's 'president.' Biden ignored a shouted question of whether he could guarantee to allies that the U.S. wouldn't default on its debts. Earlier, the president spent time shaking hands and taking selfies at the air station Air Force Onbe landed, Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. About 400 American and Japanese troops were gathered inside. Flanked by their national security teams, Kishida praised the 'strong relationship not only in the area of security' but 'strong cooperation in all areas.' Kishida added that the U.S.-Japan relationship 'has evolved by leaps and bounds.' A stark symbol of that was the host city - which was obliterated by a nuclear bomb dropped by the United States in 1945. 'Thank you for hosting the G7 summit here,' Biden said. 'Under Japan's leadership, we've already delivered progress on the G7 agenda this year, and I'm looking forward to our meetings in the days ahead.' 'As you said back in January when you were at the White House... we face one of the most complex environments in recent history, security environments, and I couldn't agree more,' the president continued. He said he was 'proud' the U.S. and Japan were facing it together. 'We stand up for the shared values including supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereign territory and holding Russia accountable for its brutal aggression,' Biden said. In a slight against China he added that Japan and U.S. were 'ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific. Biden also boasted about some of the U.S.-Japenese partnerships in business including on quantum computing and semiconductors. 'The bottom line Mr. Prime Minister is that when our countries stand together, we stand stronger, and I believe the whole world is safer when we do,' the president concluded. Biden's granddaughter Maisy, who graduated from University of earlier this week, traveled with him from the United States and the two They spent about 10 minutes on the tarmac in Anchorage while Air Force One was being refueled, using their time to stretch their legs and take in the mountain view. Maisy wore a blue hoodie that covered her blonde hair. The president wore a blue pullover and baseball cap along with his signature aviators. On the flight over to Japan, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan slammed the news media for reports that Biden's cancellation of the Australia and Papua New Guinea portion of his trip was a win for Chinese President . 'We believe this notion that somehow the PRC [People's Republic of ] is sitting there happy and comfortable about the situation is a convenient media narrative going into this trip, but it does not reflect reality in any way,' Sullivan, who is the president's top foreign policy adviser, told reporters traveling on Air Force One to . 'It's not for me to give you advice on or to make a pitch to you on how you report things. But I think there is a degree of fairly dramatic over-cranking in saying that pushing off a visit to Australia and PNG speaks to the fundamentals of American diplomacy at this time,' he noted. Biden also canceled an historic visit to Papua New Guinea, where he would have been the first U.S. president to visit in an official capacity, in order to return to the United States to deal with the debt crisis. He was supposed to visit both countries after attending the G7 summit in Hiroshima. Those two stops were meant to re-affirm the U.S. commitment to the Pacific as China's political, military and economic power in the region rises. Canceling them was seen as a foreign policy setback for Biden, who has put a great focus on the Pacific region and countering Jinping's influence there. Analysts said the president's decision cast doubt to U.S. credibility in the Pacific island region, where Washington is competing with Beijing for influence. 'It will reinforce lingering doubts about U.S. staying power,' Hal Brands, a professor of global affairs at Johns Hopkins University, told . 'And you can bet China will make hay of this - its message to countries in the region will be, 'You can't count on a country that can't even perform basic functions of governance.' And Richard Maude of the Asia Society Policy Institute said the cancellation could be a setback for relations. 'The mantra in the region is all about turning up. Turning up is half the battle. China turns up all the time, and so the optics aren't great,' he told Reuters. Xi has visited the region three times, including a 2018 visit to Papua New Guinea. But the White House slammed such talk, arguing countering China would be a major topic of the G7, where the leaders of France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan meet. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also invited the leaders of the Quad - which is made up of Australia, India, the United States and Japan - to the G7. There is talk of plans for the four leaders to have a sit-down on the sidelines of the G7. 'The President felt it was critical that he be at the G7 because this particular format is so central to getting alignment and convergence with key countries - including, by the way, the countries in the Quad, because both Australia and India will be in Hiroshima, and he will have the opportunity to engage with them there,' Sullivan argued. He also said Biden would hold a summit for the leaders of the Pacific Island nations this year and would make a visit to Australia. Biden also invited Aussie Prime Minister to make a state visit to the United States later this year. Biden hosted a summit of Pacific Island leaders last year. The Pacific islands span 40 million square km of ocean, where vital sea lanes and submarine cables link the United States to Australia and Japan - two of its major allies in the region. But island leaders compliain the U.S. sees them as 'fly over' countries. And Biden's change in plans brought back memories of 2013, when then-President Barack Obama Albanese announced on Wednesday he would cancel the Quad meeting scheduled to take place in Sydney since Biden can't attend. The leaders of those four Quad nations were to discuss ways to counter 's aggression in the Indo-Pacific. Albanese told reporters in Australia that the four leaders were attempting to get together in Japan at the G7. 'At this stage, we haven't got a time locked in for that arrangement,' he said Wednesday. 'This is a decision that's been made overnight, our time, in the United States.' In November, Biden met with Xi during a G20 meeting in Bali but tensions between Beijing and Washington have grown since then. There has been talk of a phone call between Biden and Xi but none has been scheduled so far. Biden, during his Australia stop, also was scheduled to address to a joint sitting of the Australia Parliament. He would have been the first U.S. president to speak there since Barack Obama did nine years ago. The president was also scheduled to stop in Papua New Guinea on the way from Japan to Australia. The decision to cancel that visit also comes as a significant blow, given Biden would have been the first sitting US President to tour the nation in an official capacity. Biden will arrive in Hiroshima, Japan, on Thursday to meet with G7 leaders. The G7 countries include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition, Japan invited Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Australia, Comoros (which currently holds the African Union presidency) and the Cook Islands (current chair of the Pacific Islands Forum) to the G7 meeting. But the U.S. debt crisis will be looming over the trip. The United States has never defaulted on its debt. If it does so, the economic devastation could be felt around the world. The Treasury Department reiterated Monday that they still believe the day the nation could run out of funds to pay its bills could be as soon as June 1. Biden met with the Big Four congressional leaders - House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Harkin Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell - at the White House on Tuesday to try to move negotiations along. In announcing the change to his travel plans, he said dealing with the debt limit was simply too important. 'There was an overwhelming consensus, I think in today's meeting with congressional leaders, that defaulting on the debt is simply not an option. Our economy would fall into recession,' Biden said. And the White House pointed out that Russia and China would love to see the U.S. default. 'There's countries like Russia and China that would love nothing more than for us to default so they could point the finger and say, 'You see, the United States is not a stable, reliable partner,' spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday. Republicans have said they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling unless Democrats agree to sharp spending cuts. Biden will now have to spend much of his time at the G7 reassuring leaders the United States is a reliable partner. The war in the Ukraine and supporting efforts there will also be discussed as will climate change and Biden's push for clean energy. President won't apologize for the United States' use of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during during his trip to the . 'No,' National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters when asked if Biden would offer an apology. Biden will visit the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima on Friday and meet with survivors of the nuclear blast. It's estimated that around 135,000 civilians were killed in by the atomic bombs used in 1945 with another 69,000 injured. 'The President won't be making a statement at the Peace Memorial Park,' Sullivan told reporters traveling on Air Force One to the summit. 'He'll be participating with the other G7 leaders in a wreath-laying and a few other events. But this is not, from his perspective, a bilateral moment. This is him, as one of the G7 leaders, coming to pay respects.' Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is hosting the gathering of world leaders, is from Hiroshima. Sullivan said Biden's visit to the memorial is being made out of respect for Kishida, who entered Japanese politics as a member of the Japanese House of Representatives for Hiroshima's First District. The Peace Memorial is the remains of the only building in Hiroshima to survive the nuclear blast. The site includes memorials for the dead, the iconic bombed-out Peace Dome, and a museum on the bomb and its aftermath. The Peace Park is dedicated to the pursuit of peace and nuclear disarmament. Kishida has made nuclear proliferation and disarmament part of his life's work. He and President Biden will hold a one-on-one meeting on Thursday evening shortly after the U.S. president arrives in Hiroshima. When Kishida announced the G7 summit - the gathering of leaders from the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy - would take place in his hometown, he said he hoped the location would 'send a message to the world that mankind will never again cause the catastrophe of nuclear weapons.' The world leaders are gathering at a time Russia is threatening to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine and North Korea has been conducting tests of nuclear missiles. 'We need to send out a strong message that we will note tolerate the use of force to change the status quo unilaterally as witnessed with Russia's invasion of Ukraine ... that we will protect the international order based on rule of law,' Kishida told the Japan Times in April. 'We won't allow the treat of nuclear weapons by Russia.' Since the bombing in 1945, Hiroshima has been rebuilt to become Japan's 10th latest city. The United States has been careful not to apologize for the use of the weapon while expressing sorrow over the destruction it caused. Barack Obama visited Hiroshima in 2016, but did not apologize for the U.S. attacks. Instead he spoke about the costs of war and the need for peace and nuclear disarmament. 'In the image of a mushroom cloud that rose into these skies, we are most starkly reminded of humanity's core contradiction: how the very spark that marks us as a species our thoughts, our imagination, our language, our tool-making, our ability to set ourselves apart from nature and bend it to our will those very things also give us the capacity for unmatched destruction,' he said. Obama's vision for a world without nuclear weapons contributed to his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. On August 6th and August 9th 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. It remains the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. Some Japanese politicians have called for the U.S. to offer an official apology but many Americans feel to do so would undermine the war efforts.