Biden to host Southeast Asian leaders for May 12-13 summit

The White House says President Joe Biden will host leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian countries in Washington next month for a summitBy DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated PressApril 16, 2022, 3:38 PM – 3 min readShare to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleWASHINGTON– President Joe Biden will host leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian countries in Washington next month for a summit, the White House stated Saturday.The May 12-13 event is implied to show the United States commitment to being a partner with nations in the region.The White House formerly had revealed that the summit would be held March 28-29, but the local grouping of countries called ASEAN sought a post ponement due to scheduling concerns among some of its members.The top will honor 45 years of relations between the U.S. and the ASEAN countries. The gathering follows Bidens participation in an October 2021 summit where he announced $102 million in new initiatives to assist these nations with COVID-19 and health security, climate modification, economic development and gender equality.”It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to work as a strong, dependable partner in Southeast Asia,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated Saturday in a statement. “Our shared aspirations for the region will continue to underpin our common commitment to advance an Indo-Pacific that is totally free and open, safe, linked, and durable.”ASEANs 10 members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.Its members have been at odds with each other over Myanmar, which has been wrecked by violent discontent since the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February last year.ASEAN is seeking to implement a five-point prepare for Myanmar it reached in 2015 worrying discussion, humanitarian support and an end to violence. However Myanmars ruling military council has actually delayed the strategys application even as the country has slipped into a situation that some U.N. professionals have described as civil war.Myanmars absence of cooperation led ASEAN last year to disallow its leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, from attending its annual top conference, an unmatched step for the body whose members generally have prevented public criticism of each other and have actually operated by consensus.It has actually used a similar policy for subsequent meetings, stating that it would permit Myanmar to send only non-political representatives.Biden hosted Singapores prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, for talks last month in which the president attempted to assure Singapore and other Pacific allies that the administration remains concentrated on the region even while dealing with Europe and other allies to end Russias intrusion of Ukraine.