Southeast Asia summit: North Korea fears, Myanmar concerns and Cold War warning US military drone lands again after 908 days in space

The Southeast Asian Association of States Asean summit is currently taking place in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. US President Joe Biden is also in attendance.

Tripartite Meeting: USA, South Korea, Japan

US President Joe Biden met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Sek Yeol for a tripartite meeting to discuss the North Korea threat and tensions with China to speak.

South Korean President Yoon had one for the tripartite meeting Call for abolition of the North Korean nuclear weapons program. This is a precondition for peace in the Indo-Pacific. If North Korea, despite international concerns and UN resolutions, launches ballistic missiles again or conducts a nuclear test, the world community must react decisively, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying.

Biden: concerned about Myanmar

US President Joe Biden has also expressed concern about the situation in the crisis-ravaged country of Myanmar. At the East Asian meeting in Cambodia, Biden made clear that more pressure is urgently needed on the military junta in the former Burma, the White House said on Sunday.

This should ensure that a five-point plan agreed with the generals in April 2021 is finally implemented. This will bring an end to violence and a dialogue with civil society forces in the Southeast Asian country. The goal is also the release of political prisoners, Biden said.

Myanmar has been mired in chaos and violence since a military coup in February 2021. There are persistent reports of attacks on civilians, torture and arbitrary arrests. Deposed ex-Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi is in prison and has to answer to a number of alleged crimes in court.

Myanmar’s junta chief General Min Aung Hlaing has not been invited to the summit.

Biden: stance taken against China

Prior to his meeting with head of state and party leader Xi Jinping, Biden took a firm stance against China at the summit. According to the White House, Biden rejected China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The ruling of the International Arbitration Tribunal in The Hague, which dismissed China’s claims as unlawful in 2016, was “final and legally binding”.

Freedom of navigation and overflights in the South and East China Seas off the coast of Japan must be respected. All disputes must be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law, Biden stressed. Globally, the US wanted to compete vigorously with China. They also wanted to draw attention to human rights violations. At the same time, however, communication links must be maintained “to prevent competition from degenerating into conflict,” the White House said.

Biden underlined the importance of “peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait, which can be seen as an indirect reference to the Chinese leadership’s threats to conquer Taiwan. Beijing considers the democratic island part of the People’s Republic, while Taiwan has long considered itself independent. The US has committed itself to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself, which so far has mainly resulted in arms shipments.

But Biden has gone further than his predecessors, repeatedly reiterating that US troops would defend the island in the event of a Chinese attack. On Monday, US President Xi Jinping will meet on the Indonesian island of Bali. The first face-to-face meeting since taking office is ahead of the Group of Leading Economies (G20) summit on Tuesday and Wednesday in Nusa Dua, Bali.

Indonesia warns of Cold War in Southeast Asia

Indonesian President Joko Widodo warned at the Southeast Asian summit that the region could come between the fronts amid mounting tensions between the US and China. ASEAN must be a peaceful region and an anchor for global stability, Widodo said in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. He added:

(yam/sda/dpa)