PHNOM PENH: US President Joe Biden arrived in Asia on Saturday and vowed to push Chinese leader Xi Jinping to rein in North Korea when he attends the G20 summit next week. They will be face to face for the first time in the meeting.
Biden arrived in Phnom Penh for meetings with Southeast Asian leaders before meeting his Chinese counterpart in Bali on Monday.
The meeting between the two superpowers comes after North Korea’s record-breaking series of missile tests, raising fears that the state may soon conduct its seventh nuclear test.
US national security adviser Jack Sullivan told reporters that at Monday’s meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Biden will tell Xi that China – Pyongyang’s biggest ally – will play a “constructive role in curbing North Korea’s worst trends.” Interested in paying”.
Biden will also tell Xi that if North Korea’s missile and nuclear development “continues on this path, it will mean an increased US military and security presence in the region.”
Sullivan said Biden would not make demands on China but would “give his perspective” to XI.
It is that “North Korea is a threat not only to the United States, not only to (South Korea) and Japan, but to the peace and stability of the entire region.”
Whether China wants to increase pressure on North Korea is “of course up to them,” Sullivan said.
However, with North Korea rapidly expanding its missile capabilities, “the operational situation is more critical at the moment,” Sullivan said.
Leaders of the world’s two largest economies, Biden and Xi have spoken by phone several times since Biden became president in January 2021.
But the Covid-19 pandemic and post-XI aversion to foreign travel have prevented them from meeting in person.
Regional Rivalry.
The pair have no shortage of topics to discuss between Washington and Beijing, from trade in China’s Xinjiang region to human rights and the status of the autonomous island of Taiwan.
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that the two sides needed to work together, “warning of a growing risk that the world economy will split in two, led by two major powers.” The economies of America and China will.”
Ahead of the G20, Biden will advance America’s commitment to Southeast Asia in meetings with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to counter Beijing’s influence in the region.
China has been flexing its muscles in the region in recent years through trade, diplomacy and military might.
Sullivan said Biden went to Phnom Penh with an agenda emphasizing his administration’s policy of “elevating” the U.S. presence in the region as a guarantor of stability.
Biden will discuss “the need for freedom of navigation for lawful, unimpeded commerce, and to ensure that the United States plays a constructive role in maintaining peace and stability in the region.”
“He wants to use the next 36 hours to build on that foundation to advance U.S. engagement,” Sullivan said, noting that the summit aims to elevate U.S.-ASEAN relations to a “comprehensive strategic partnership.” Increase is included.
Xi Emerged, Putin Absent
Both Biden and Xi entered the G20 buoyed by recent domestic political success: Biden’s party scored surprisingly strong midterm results and Xi won a historic third term as China’s leader.
At last month’s Communist Party congress, where he was re-anointed as head, Xi warned of a challenging geopolitical environment without naming the United States, as he told the story of China’s “inevitable” victory over adversity. Stated.
The G20 summit will be the latest step in a diplomatic re-emergence for XI after the pandemic – it comes less than a fortnight after it is hosted by German Chancellor Olaf Schulz in Beijing.
Along with Biden, Xi will also meet with French President Emmanuel Macron before he heads to Bangkok later in the week for the APEC summit.
Notably absent from the summit will be Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been ignored by the West since the invasion of Ukraine, and is sending Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov instead.
Russian news agency Reported that Lavrov will press Moscow’s view that the US is “destabilizing” the Asia-Pacific region with a confrontational approach.
The Kremlin has close ties to Vietnam and Myanmar – whose military is a major buyer of Russian arms – while other regional governments have flatly refused to join Western efforts to isolate Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to attend the G20 virtually, after his request to address the ASEAN gathering was rejected.
