Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are set to meet face-to-face on Monday for the first time since Biden took office as bilateral relations sink to their worst point in decades. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters the meeting could last “a couple of hours.” Biden, who landed in Bali after meeting Southeast Asian and East Asian leaders in Cambodia, said the United States would “vigorously compete” with Beijing while “ensuring that competition does not turn into conflict.” . Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also arrived in Bali from Cambodia earlier on Sunday. The war in Ukraine and its economic fallout are expected to dominate discussions in Bali and at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bangkok at the end of the week, alongside climate commitments, food insecurity and tensions over the Taiwan Straits. South China Sea and North Korea. Earlier, Lavrov accused the West of militarizing Southeast Asia to contain Chinese and Russian interests on a geostrategic battlefield. “The United States and its NATO allies are trying to dominate this space,” Lavrov told reporters. Lavrov represents President Vladimir Putin at the summits and is expected to hear scathing disapproval from within the G20 over the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation. Ukraine is not a member of the G20, but has been invited by Indonesia as an observer. Its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will speak virtually at the meeting. Russia’s foreign ministry on Sunday said the G20 is not the forum to handle security issues and should focus on pressing global economic challenges.
‘AGGRESSIVE’ CHALLENGES
Biden held a tripartite meeting with the leaders of allies Japan and South Korea and said the three countries are “more aligned than ever” with North Korea. South Korean President Yun Suk-yeol said the North’s recent provocations show the regime’s “nature against humanity,” adding that it has become more hostile and aggressive based on reliance on its nuclear and missile capabilities. His Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida said Pyongyang’s actions, which included a recent ballistic missile launch over Japan, were unprecedented. “This tripartite summit is timely as we expect further challenge,” Kishida said. Kishida also launched an attack on China for violations of Japan’s sovereignty in the East China Sea and said Beijing was also responsible for increasing regional tension in the South China Sea, a conduit for at least $3 trillion in annual trade. In a separate press conference, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his brief talks the previous day with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang had been constructive and positive, amid anticipation of a formal summit with Xi. Like allies of the United States, Australia’s ties to China have also soured in recent years. “I have said repeatedly about the relationship with China that we should cooperate where we can,” Albanese said. “And that dialogue is always good.”
‘MATURE’ DISCUSSIONS
Eighteen countries representing half of the global economy participated in Sunday’s closed-door East Asia Summit, which included ASEAN countries, Japan, South Korea, China, India, the United States , Russia, Australia and New Zealand. The summit’s chairman, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, said the plenary session saw intense debate, but the atmosphere was not tense. “The leaders spoke in a mature way, nobody left,” he told a news conference at the end of a three-day summit led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The leaders also called on Myanmar’s military leaders to follow a peace plan agreed with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while condemning North Korea’s missile launches and Russia’s “brutal and unjust” invasion of Ukraine. Additional reporting by Prak Chan Thul and Jiraporn Kuhakan in Phnom Penh, Stanley Widianto in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, Ju-min Park, Sakura Murakami, Leika Kihara and Jake Cordell. Written by Martin Petty and Kanupriya Kapoor. Edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Raissa Kasolowsky Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
