US President Joe Biden is to host the leaders of ASEAN for a special summit in Washington this month, the White House said on Monday.
The meeting of the 10-member ASEAN is to be held on March 28 and 29, and is being billed by the White House as an opportunity to demonstrate the US’ commitment to the bloc and a chance to mark 45 years of US-ASEAN relations.
“It is a top priority for the Biden-[US Vice President Kamala] Harris administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner and to strengthen an empowered and unified ASEAN to address the challenges of our time,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The ASEAN nations are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
ASEAN barred Myanmar’s military-installed government leadership from its annual summit in October last year, instead restricting the nation’s participation to non-political representatives.
That policy is expected to remain in place for this month’s summit, said a Biden administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly.
The summit comes as Biden has sought to make relations in the Pacific a top foreign policy priority amid growing concerns about China as a military and economic adversary.
Biden participated in the October summit, where he announced more than US$100 million in new US spending in ASEAN on health programs, a new climate initiative, programs to assist with the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and education programs.
It marked the first time since 2017, when then-US president Donald Trump participated in the summit, that a US president took part in a meeting of the bloc.
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