play for time
verb1
Idiomatic To delay a situation until one is prepared.
- Two cheers for that, at best. The original six party talks ran, or rather crawled, from 2003 to 2008. It remains unclear if North Korea was ever serious – or just playing for time while working on HEU.29 February 2012, Aidan Foster-Carter, BBC News, “North Korea: The denuclearisation dance resumes”