ASEAN summit heats up – US President Biden in Cambodia Selenskyj warns of mine danger – the night update without photos

With the arrival of US President Joe Biden, the top 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 receiving Prime Minister Hun Sen was on the agenda. Biden also plans to deliver a speech at the annual US-Asean summit. With his visit, he wants to win over the emerging Asian countries and reduce China’s growing influence in the region.

ASEAN currently comprises ten countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Myanmar. The crisis in the former Burma after the military coup of February 2021 is seen as one of the main points of the talks.

The ASEAN meeting marks the start of a series of three summits and key diplomatic meetings in Southeast Asia. In addition to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba will be in Phnom Penh. It was unclear whether bilateral meetings on the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine are planned.

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 provocations of missile tests.

In addition, Biden will coordinate with South Korea and Japan for a meeting with Chinese head of state and party leader Xi Jinping, scheduled for Monday in the Indonesian island of Bali, his security adviser Jake Sullivan said. The meeting is eagerly anticipated as it will be the first meeting between the two presidents since Biden took office. The relationships are worse than ever.

The day after, the two-day summit of the group of economic powers (G20) starts in the holiday resort of Nusa Dua in Bali, in which Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will also participate. Scholz has previously visited Vietnam and Singapore. Ahead of the summit, activists pushed for greater financial commitments to fight the world’s growing 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 CO2 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 US

At the end of the series of summits, the Asia-Pacific Summit (APEC) will take place in the Thai capital Bangkok on Friday and Saturday. Xi Jinping, US Vice President Kamala Harris and French President Emmanuel Macron will arrive, among others. 21 Pacific countries collaborate in the forum: 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. (sda/dpa)