With the arrival of US President Joe Biden, the summit of the Southeast Asian community of states ASEAN in Cambodia is entering the hot phase. Biden landed on Air Force One in the capital Phnom Penh on Saturday morning local time. On Saturday afternoon, a meeting with the host Prime Minister Hun Sen was on the agenda. Biden also wants to give a speech at the annual US-Asean summit. With his visit, he wants to woo the emerging Asian nations and push back China’s growing influence in the region.
The ASEAN currently includes ten countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Myanmar. The crisis in former Burma following the February 2021 military coup is seen as one of the key points of the talks.
The ASEAN meeting kicks off a series of three summits and important diplomatic meetings in Southeast Asia. In addition to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba will be in Phnom Penh. It was unclear whether bilateral meetings about the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine are planned.
Meetings with Japan and South Korea
On Sunday, Biden plans to meet South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the Asean summit to discuss North Korea’s recent missile test provocations.
In addition, Biden will coordinate with South Korea and Japan for a meeting with China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping planned for Monday on the Indonesian island of Bali, said his security adviser Jake Sullivan. The meeting is eagerly awaited: it is the first meeting between the two presidents since Biden took office. Relations are worse than ever.
G20 Summit in Indonesia
The day after, the two-day summit of the group of major economic powers (G20) begins in the holiday resort of Nusa Dua on Bali, in which Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will also take part. Scholz has previously visited Vietnam and Singapore. Ahead of the summit, activists urged greater financial commitments to fight growing world hunger and climate change. The G20 should give new impetus to the negotiations at the COP27 world climate conference in Egypt.
The group is responsible for 80 percent of carbon emissions. The G20 includes the European Union and the strongest economies on all continents. These are 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, France, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the USA.
At the end of the series of summits, the Asia-Pacific Summit (APEC) will take place on Friday and Saturday in the Thai capital Bangkok. Among others, Xi Jinping, US Vice President Kamala Harris and French President Emmanuel Macron will be arriving. 21 countries around the Pacific are working together in the forum: the USA, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore , the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
