The U.S. Diplomat website wrote Wednesday that the upcoming summit is symbolically important as a milestone in the Biden administration's engagement with Southeast Asian nations
The goal is to counter what the ADMINISTRATION sees as China's growing influence in Asia
On the eve of the Summit, Acting U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN Leibholz was confident that the summit would lead to an ambitious
and forward-looking STATEMENT of U.S. -ASEAN vision, including partnerships on public health, climate and economic growth
The article also analyzed that the India-Thailand economic framework is likely to be an important topic of the summit
Biden's first asian-style hard economic framework, to be unveiled in late May, will be a focal point of the special summit, which biden has arranged to seek ASEAN support as a sales pitch
In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lixian said Thursday that China believes that any regional cooperation framework in the Asia-Pacific region
The Asia-Pacific is a land of cooperation and development, not of geopolitics.
A clique that upholds openness, cooperation and mutual benefit and rejects the Cold War mentality
In fact, ASEAN countries have repeatedly expressed their reluctance to engage in a war between China and the United States
It is reported that eight leaders from ten ASEAN countries will attend the summit. Philippine President Duterte and Myanmar's military chief Gen Aung Lai will not attend the summit
Mr Duterte has said he did not attend because he did not want to make decisions his successor would have to abide by
Ahead of the summit, Cambodia's state secretary Koh Kim Hung, who holds the rotating chair of ASEAN, said her country would not be drawn into a war between China and the US
Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao also quoted experts as saying that the special summit is the best platform for the United States to showcase itself as a strong and trusted partner in Southeast Asia
And to be such a partner the United States needs to understand the need for ASEAN to remain united and neutral take the hard economic framework for example
China believes that the United States, as a contingency country, should contribute to regional peace and development
We should play a positive and constructive role instead of undermining regional peace and stability
The United States should not undermine regional solidarity and cooperation
Under the guise of cooperation, teams are selected on issues involving China's core interests
Play with fire He has a principle
It's called the ASEAN way which means that these members don't get involved in highly sensitive and controversial issues and I think ASEAN will continue that tradition as well
Cambodia's state secretary koh Kim Hung offered another intriguing detail on the eve of the summit
In an interview with Reuters, Gao xinhong complained that the summit has not yet arranged individual meetings between leaders and Biden
If the U.S. government really wants to improve relations with the region, McDonald should spend more time meeting with Southeast Asian leaders at the summit
He said it was normal for Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who currently holds asean's rotating presidency, to meet with Biden
But Patrick Murphy, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, told him there were no bilateral meetings scheduled because the summit was long and Biden was busy
The U.S. originally planned to hold the summit in March, but the timing was not coordinated with ASEAN countries and turned into a surprise unilateral announcement of the timing
Such American arrogance made many ASEAN leaders unhappy and some began to think it best to cancel the summit
Observers point out that this seems to indicate that U.S. policy in Southeast Asia is still moving away from the old framework that values, but does not respect, and uses to its detriment