Washington / Seri Seri Begawan: US President Joe Biden will take part in the virtual Summit with the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) on Tuesday, the first time in the four years Washington will be involved at the top level with the block he saw as the key.
For his strategy to push back to China.
The US Embassy in Brunei told Reuters that Biden would lead the US delegation for the Asean-United States Summit, part of the series of ASEAN leader meetings this week.
The United States has not joined a meeting at the Presidential level since the predecessor of Biden, Donald Trump, attended the ASEAN-US meeting in Manila in 2017.
Analysts said Biden meetings with 10-nation blocks reflected administrative and partner efforts in collective efforts to push back to China.
They expect Biden to focus on collaboration in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, climate change, supply chains and infrastructure.
He was also expected to convince ASEAN that the US recently focused on involvement with India, Japan and Australia in a quad format called and the agreement to supply Australia with a nuclear-powered submarine was not intended to replace the Central ASEAN role in the region.
Edgard Kagan, senior director for East Asia at the White House National Security Council, Stress last week that Washington did not see Quad as “NATO Asia” and that it was not intended to compete with ASEAN.
He said Washington had an interest in working with ASEAN to ensure supply chain resilience, in the climate, and to overcome “general challenges about maritime issues” – clear reference for wide and firm Chinese claims in the dissipated South China Sea.
“This will be the first meeting of Biden with the ASEAN leaders as president, so he wants to convince them that Southeast Asia has questioned his government,” said Murray Hiebert, a senior colleague with the Southeast Asian program in a strategic center and international study think tanks.
Hiebert said the ASEAN leaders would be eager to hear the US plan to increase the provision of Covid-19 vaccine into the region, which has been hit by a pandemic, and how Washington plans to engage in trade, investment and infrastructure.
Biden did not provide any signs of plans to return to the regional trade framework that Trump resigned in 2017, and an Asian diplomat, spoke on anonymous requirements, said the lack of economic elements in US regional involvement was the main gap.
“The most important piece for this region, is economic work,” diplomats said.
“We were somewhat stuck that the area said: ‘You have put a kind of strategic competitive structure with China, but this is not useful for the area at all.
And, in the meantime, we all have an economic relationship that grows with China.'” ASEAN meeting will be took place without Myanmar’s military leader, Min Aung Hlaing, who overthrew the civilian government on February 1 – a rare exception for grouping which is usually known for not intervening.
Kagan said this was a significant step but said it would be more necessary to overcome Myanmar’s challenges facing.