President Joe Biden tried to reassure world leaders on Saturday that the US would not default as he consulted with the heads of Australia, Japan and India in a meeting of the so-called Quad partnership that had been hastily rescheduled because of the debt limit standoff back in Washington.

Hoping to avert an outcome that would rattle the global economy and prove to be a boon to Beijing, Biden opened his third day in Japan at the annual G7 meeting with a briefing from his staff on the latest fits and starts in talks over how to raise the federal debt limit.