When Southeast Asia’s annual summit was expanded to include the US more than a decade ago, it assured an often-neglected region a regular audience with the sitting president. Not this year.
While that strategy may have served its interests in the past, the growing rivalry between the US and China is showing the risks that comes with sitting on the fence. Beijing is pressing ahead with its claim to nearly all of the South China Sea while the US is reshaping regional alliances in a bid to build a collective security network that China says is designed to contain its rise.
Biden is scheduled to visit Hanoi on Sunday where the two sides are poised to significantly enhance ties. China is meanwhile planning to send Li Qiang to Jakarta where he will make his international debut as premier. Biden’s absence in Asean this year is more disappointing to the region than when Donald Trump made a habit of skipping those summits. This time, however, former diplomats are saying the blame lies with the bloc itself.
In no place is that more apparent than the oil and gas rich South China Sea, where regular incursions by Chinese vessels have forced the Philippines and Vietnam to bolster their own claims. Just last week, the two joined India in their opposition to a new Chinese map. The US has meanwhile strengthened its hand in the broader Indo-Pacific region. Biden last month facilitated a diplomatic breakthrough between Japan and South Korea after years of icy ties. It also signed a new agreement with Palau, giving it the authorization to unilaterally enforce maritime regulation in the tiny Pacific island.
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