Joe Biden will participate in a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Tuesday after his predecessor, Donald Trump, skipped the event three years in a row.
The president will join Southeast Asian leaders for the virtual ASEAN-U.S. summit from the White House for the first time in four years and is expected to announce more than $100 million in spending for the association.
The new funding will include money for several initiatives and programs, including economic recovery caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
This meeting is seen as key to countering an increasingly assertive China – especially in recent years.
Donald Trump attended an ASEAN-U.S. meeting in Manila in 2017, during which time U.S. relations with China deteriorated, stooping to their worst levels in decades.
Following the ASEAN summit, Biden will participate on Wednesday in the broader East Asia Summit, which brings together ASEAN and other nations in the Indo-Pacific region, a senior U.S. administration official said.
'The President's participation in these summits demonstrates our commitment to the region and to a free-and-open Indo-Pacific and to supporting the security and prosperity of our partners,' the official said.
President Joe Biden will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations virtual summit on Tuesday, which was skipped every year by Donald Trump after he attended in 2017
On Thursday, Biden will then depart for a Europe trip, where he will travel to Rome for the G20 Summit and the United Kingdom for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26.
Analysts say Biden's meeting with the ASEAN, a 10-nation bloc, reflects his administration's efforts to engage allies and partners in a collective effort to push back against China.
Officials have, however, avoided specific mention of China in the run-up to the meetings as they work to set up a virtual summit between Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this year.
The White House said Biden will announce plans to provide up to $102 million to expand the U.S. strategic partnership with ASEAN, which is currently chaired by Brunei. The funding is meant to go towards health, climate, economic and education programs.
Biden is also expected to assure ASEAN that a recent U.S. focus on engagement with India, Japan and Australia in the so-called Quad grouping and a deal to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines are not intended to supplant ASEAN's central regional role.
Edgard Kagan, senior director for East Asia at the White House National Security Council, stressed last week that Washington does not see the Quad as 'an Asian NATO' and that it was not intended to compete with ASEAN.
He said Washington had an interest in working with ASEAN to ensure supply-chain resilience, on climate, and to address 'common challenges on maritime issues' - an apparent reference to China's broad claims in the disputed South China Sea.
While planning to provide a modest sum to promote trade with ASEAN, Biden has given no sign of any plan to return to a regional trade framework Trump withdrew from in 2017.
The virtual summit includes 10 Asian nations and is being held virtually on Tuesday. Brunei currently chairs the ASEAN
Analysts said ASEAN leaders would be anxious to hear how Washington plans to engage further on trade, investment and infrastructure and of any U.S. plans to step up provision of COVID-19 vaccines to the region, which has been hard hit by the pandemic.
An Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the lack of an economic element in U.S. regional engagement was a major gap at a time when countries were expanding economic ties with China.
Kagan said it was critical for the credibility of the Quad that it deliver on a pledge it made in March to supply a billion COVID-19 vaccines to Southeast Asia by the end of 2022.
That plan stalled after India, the world's largest vaccine producer, banned exports in April amid a massive domestic COVID outbreak.
The ASEAN meetings will take place without Myanmar military leader Min Aung Hlaing, who overthrew a civilian government on February 1 – a rare exclusion for a grouping usually known for non-interference.
Kagan called ASEAN's move to exclude the Myanmar leader a significant step but said more needed to be done to address the challenges that country is facing.
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