President Biden unexpectedly skipped the gala dinner Tuesday at the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, returning to his hotel room for the evening.
It is unclear why Mr. Biden decided on the last-minute change to his schedule, which came at the end of a full day of meetings.
A White House official stressed that Mr. Biden does not have COVID-19, but offered little explanation for the sudden move. The official said the president had spent a full day in meetings and needed to attend to a few things, but did not elaborate beyond stressing that there was “nothing urgent” that commanded Mr. Biden’s attention.
The official added that Mr. Biden is expected to resume his normal schedule on Wednesday.
Mr. Biden is among a handful of world leaders who met over the weekend with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Cambodian leader had also attended the G-20 meeting but returned home after testing positive for COVID.
The U.S. and Cambodian leaders spent some time together Saturday and were at a joint meeting, though not seated together, on Sunday.
The White House said Mr. Biden tested negative Tuesday morning for COVID and is not considered a close contact as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr. Biden has had several COVID booster shots.
Mr. Biden had several meetings on Tuesday, including talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indonesia President Joko Widodo and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
He was likely running low on his dementia juice IV. It was time to recharge his cooked cabbage.