Joe Biden arrives in Cambodia seeking to counter Chinese influence

() — President Joe Biden highlighted the United States’ relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries on Saturday as “the heart of my administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy,” in an attempt to counter the growing influence of China ahead of a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for Monday.

The weekend meetings in Cambodia come before the highly anticipated G20 summit next week in Indonesia, where Biden will meet Xi in person for the first time since he became president. The ASEAN meetings, along with Sunday’s East Asia Summit, which will also take place in Phnom Penh, will be an opportunity for the president to speak with US allies before sitting down with Xi.

Speaking to the summit, Biden announced “another crucial step” in the group’s progress by detailing the launch of the US-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which, he said, “will address the most important issues of our time, from the climate change to health security, defending against major threats to rule-based order and threats to the rule of law, and building an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, stable and prosperous, resilient and secure.” He also touted the US’s existing financial commitments to ASEAN and highlighted a budget request for $850 million in assistance for Southeast Asia.

“This is my third trip, my third summit, my second in person, and it reflects the importance the United States places on the relationship with ASEAN and our commitment to the centrality of ASEAN. ASEAN is at the heart of my Government’s Indo-Pacific strategy. And we continue to strengthen our commitment to work in unison with an empowered and unified ASEAN,” Biden said in brief opening remarks at the start of the summit.

The president’s first activity of the day in Cambodia was a bilateral meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen as he seeks to host a summit with ASEAN leaders in Washington.

Biden, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One, “intended to increase our engagement with the Indo-Pacific” from the start of his presidency, and his attendance at ASEAN summits. and East Asia this weekend will highlight the work done so far, including the Indo-Pacific economic framework announced earlier this year and partnership efforts on security.

“He comes into this series of summits with that record of achievement and goals behind him, and he wants to be able to use the next 36 hours to build on that foundation to move the American engagement forward, and also to achieve a series of concrete results, practical initiatives. Sullivan said.

Among those practical initiatives, Sullivan noted, are new measures for maritime cooperation, digital connectivity and economic investment. Biden is set to launch a new maritime domain measure “that focuses on the use of radio frequencies from commercial satellites to be able to track illegal and unregulated fishing, and also to improve the ability of countries in the region to respond to disasters and humanitarian crises,” Sullivan said.

Biden will also highlight a “forward-looking stance” on regional defense, Sullivan added, to show that the United States is at the forefront in terms of security cooperation.

In turn, Biden also referred to a new initiative by the US and ASEAN in infrastructure, for the construction of electric vehicles.

“We will work together to develop an integrated electric vehicle ecosystem in Southeast Asia, which will enable the region to pursue ambitious goals of emissions reduction, economic development and clean energy,” he said of the initiative.

There will also be a focus on Myanmar and discussions on coordination “to continue to impose costs and increase pressure on the junta” that seized power from the country’s democratically elected government in a coup in February 2021.

Meetings with allies

In Phnom Penh, Biden is scheduled to meet with the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Sunday following multiple weapons tests by North Korea, Sullivan said. The meeting is important given the historic tensions between Japan and South Korea, and the relationship between the two staunch allies of the United States has been one that Biden has sought to salvage.

The Japanese and South Koreans are united by concern over Kim Jong Un’s missile tests, as well as the prospect of a seventh nuclear weapons test. North Korea has stepped up its testing this year, having conducted missile tests for 32 days in 2022, according to a count. That compares with just eight made in 2021 and four in 2020, with a final release on Wednesday.

Sullivan suggested that the trilateral meeting is not aimed at reaching specific results, but rather at achieving greater security cooperation amid a variety of threats.

The trio of world leaders, Sullivan told reporters, “will be able to discuss broader security issues in the Indo-Pacific and also, specifically, the threats posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.”

Sullivan said Thursday that the government is concerned that the North Koreans will conduct a seventh nuclear test, though he did not confirm when that test is planned.

“Our concern is real. Whether it happens in the next week or not, I can’t say,” Sullivan said earlier this week. “We are also concerned about other possible long-range missile tests in addition to the possibility of a nuclear test. And so, we’ll be looking carefully at both possibilities.”

Looking towards the G20 and the meeting with Xi Jinping

Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) shakes hands with then-US Vice President Joe Biden (left) in Beijing on December 4, 2013. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Monday’s meeting with Xi in Bali, Indonesia, will no doubt keep an eye on the summits in Cambodia and be part of those trilateral talks.

“One thing President Biden certainly wants to do with our closest allies is preview what he intends to do, and also ask the leaders of (South Korea) and Japan ‘what would you like me to bring up? What do you want me to start with?’” Sullivan said, adding that it “will be a theme, but it won’t be the main event of the trilateral.”

Biden and Xi have spoken on the phone five times since the president came to the White House. They traveled extensively together, both in China and the United States, when both served as vice presidents of their respective countries.

Both come to the meeting on Monday after important political events. Biden did better than expected in the US midterm elections and Xi won an unprecedented third term for the Chinese Communist Party.

US officials declined to speculate on how the political situation of the two leaders might affect the dynamics of their meeting.

The bilateral meeting between Biden and Xi will focus on trying to “sharpen” each leader’s understanding of the other’s priorities, Sullivan told reporters.

That includes the issue of Taiwan, which is claimed by Beijing. In the past, Biden has promised to use US military force to defend the island from an eventual invasion. The issue is one of the most contentious between Biden and Xi.

Biden will also address North Korea, with an emphasis on the critical role China can play in managing what is a serious threat to the region, Sullivan said.

Biden has repeatedly raised the issue in his calls with Xi up to this point, but Sullivan underscored the US view that China plays a critical role, and one that must be seen in its own self-interest.

“If North Korea continues down this path, that will mean an increased US military and security presence in the region,” Sullivan said. “And so (China) must have an interest in playing a constructive role in containing North Korea’s worst tendencies. Whether they decide to do it or not, of course, is up to them.”

Sullivan said Biden will explain his position on the issue, “which is that North Korea poses a threat not just to the United States, not just to (South Korea) and Japan, but to peace and stability throughout the region.” .

Sullivan suggested that the meeting will focus on a better understanding of each other’s positions on a number of critical issues, but is unlikely to result in any major breakthroughs or dramatic changes in the bi-lateral relationship.

Instead, “it’s about leaders coming to a better understanding and then tasking their teams” to continue working on those issues, Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One as Biden flew to Cambodia.

The meeting, which will take place on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, was the result of “several weeks of intense discussions” between the two sides, Sullivan said, and Biden sees it as the start of a series of compromises between both leaders and their teams.