China’s premier yesterday said that major powers must keep their differences under control and avoid “a new Cold War,” in a thinly veiled reference to Washington, as top Asian and US officials gathered for talks in Indonesia.
Beijing has expressed concern about US-backed blocs forming on its doorstep, while facing disputes with other powers in the region over the South China Sea and other issues.
“Disagreements and disputes may arise between countries due to misperceptions, diverging interests or external interferences,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) said at the start of an ASEAN Plus Three meeting with Japan and South Korea in Jakarta.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“To keep differences under control, what is essential now is to oppose picking sides, to oppose bloc confrontation and to oppose a new Cold War,” he said.
The 10-member ASEAN was holding separate summits with China, Japan, South Korea, the US and Canada, providing an arena for big powers to lobby the bloc and their rivalries to play out.
US Vice President Kamala Harris was attending in place of US President Joe Biden, while Li was taking part instead of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Yesterday’s meetings precede an 18-member East Asia Summit today to be attended by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and the G20 summit in New Delhi at the weekend, where broader geopolitical issues are expected to top the agenda.
Harris met ASEAN leaders, praising them for their “shared commitment to international rules and norms ... and regional issues.”
In a sign of Washington’s increasing regional engagement, she announced the creation of the first US-ASEAN center in Washington.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol are attending both days of meetings.
Yoon reportedly told ASEAN leaders there must be no cooperation with North Korea, which the US said this week is holding arms talks with Russia.
“Any attempts to forge military cooperation with North Korea ... should be immediately stopped,” Yoon was quoted by a presidential official as telling an ASEAN meeting, Yonhap news agency said.
Kishida and Yoon met Li alongside ASEAN leaders, with a row between China and Japan over the release of treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant one of the topics raised.
“Japan and China talked about Fukushima, but it wasn’t heated,” a Southeast Asian diplomat who was in the room said.
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