President Joe Biden arrived in Cambodia on Saturday to meet with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders with an intent to elevate the United States’ engagement in the region.
Biden will first meet with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, the host for the regional summit, before attending the U.S.-ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh. He will also participate in East Asia summit on Sunday.
On 12 November 2022, H.E. #JoeBiden, President of the United States of America, arrives in Cambodia this morning to attend the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and Related Summits in #PhnomPenh pic.twitter.com/K5CuedmpLG
— Office of Cambodian PM ?? (@PeacePalaceKH) November 12, 2022
National security advisor Jake Sullivan said that Biden spent the last two years of his presidency “elevating our engagement in the Indo-Pacific” through initiatives such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and the AUKUS security partnership.
“And he wants to be able to use the next 36 hours to build on that foundation to take American engagement forward and also to deliver on a series of concrete, practical initiatives,” he told reporters, according to the White House.
Sullivan said that Biden would discuss with the ASEAN leaders new initiatives on maritime cooperation, digital connectivity, economic investment, and a range of other issues, including the freedom of navigation.
He plans to launch a maritime domain effort that focuses on using radio frequencies from commercial satellites to better track dark shipping and illegal fishing and to improve the countries’ capacity to respond to disasters.
“The president also has been very focused on making sure that we maintain a forward-deployed posture in our defense approach to the region,” Sullivan said.
Another topic Biden will raise is Burma, also known as Myanmar, where the military junta overthrew the ruling government in February 2021. He will discuss with ASEAN leaders how they can coordinate more closely to continue imposing costs and raising pressure on the junta.
Trilateral Meeting With Japan, South Korea
While in Phnom Penh, Biden will hold a trilateral meeting with the Japanese and South Korean leaders to discuss “broader security issues in the Indo-Pacific” and the threats posed by North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.
“What we would really like to see is enhanced trilateral security cooperation where the three countries are all coming together—where that triangle, in a way, is getting smaller and smaller—between Japan, ROK, United States,” Sullivan said, using South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea (ROK).
Biden’s efforts at the ASEAN summit are meant to lay the groundwork ahead of his highly anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping—the first face-to-face encounter of Biden’s presidency with a leader whose nation the U.S. now considers its most potent economic and military rival.
The two leaders will meet on Monday at the Group of 20 (G-20) summit that brings together leaders from the world’s largest economies, which is held this year in Indonesia on the island of Bali.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
