Indonesian President Joko Widodo warned Friday that the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) can’t become a “proxy” for any country as tensions between the US and China are soaring in the region.
“ASEAN cannot be a competition, it can’t be a proxy of any country, and international law should be respected consistently,” Widodo said at a summit of ASEAN foreign minister in Jakarta.
The summit was attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Wang Yi, the head of China’s Communist Party’s Central Commission for Foreign Affairs.
“We in ASEAN are committed to strengthening the unity and solidity as well as centrality in ASEAN to guard the peace and stability in the region,” Widodo added.
The ASEAN is a 10-member bloc and includes Indonesia, Brunei, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand. The US has been looking to build ties with the ASEAN members, but most are not eager to take the US’s side against China.
Ahead of Blinken’s visit to Jakarta, a State Department official said the US wanted to work with ASEAN countries to “push back” against China in the region, specifically in the South China Sea. The US is increasing its military presence in the region by securing a deal with the Philippines to establish four new bases in the country.
Blinken held talks with Wang on the sidelines of the summit, a meeting the State Department said was “part of ongoing efforts to maintain open channels of communication to clarify US interests across a wide range of issues and to responsibly manage competition by reducing the risk of misperception and miscalculation.” The US has framed high-level engagement with China as a way to “manage competition” rather than resolve outstanding issues.
Source: AntiWar.
