US President Joe Biden said a first summit in Washington with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) marked the launch of a “new era” in the relationship between the United States and the 10-nation bloc.
“A great deal of the history of our world in the next 50 years is going to be written in the ASEAN countries, and our relationship with you is the future, in the coming years and decades,” Biden told the ASEAN leaders on the second day of a two-day meeting.
The summit marked the first time ASEAN leaders gathered as a group in Washington and their first meeting hosted by a US president since 2016.
“We’re launching a new era – a new era – in US-ASEAN relations,” Biden said, calling the US-ASEAN partnership “critical.”
Earlier, US Vice President Kamala Harris said the United States would remain in Southeast Asia for generations and stressed the need to maintain freedom of the seas, which the United States says is challenged by China.
“The United States and ASEAN have shared a vision for this region, and together we will guard against threats to international rules and norms,” Harris said.
Neither she nor Biden mentioned China by name, but their message was clear.
Ahead of the summit, Washington promised $150 million for areas including infrastructure, security, pandemic preparedness and clean energy.
New US commitments will include deployment of a US Coast Guard vessel to the region to help counter what the United States and regional countries have described as China’s illegal fishing.
These initiatives are welcome, particularly given China’s aggressive behavior in the West Philippine Sea. But Washington will need to do much, much more to counter Chinese initiatives in the region. In November, Beijing pledged $1.5 billion in development assistance for ASEAN over three years to fight COVID-19 and to fuel economic recovery.
ASEAN countries share many US concerns about China’s overreaching claim of sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea where Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia have rival claims. But they also remain cautious about siding more firmly with the United States, given their predominant economic ties with China and limited American economic incentives.
The incoming administration in Manila clearly needs to walk a tightrope between the two superpowers, but with a new push from Washington, we hope to see a departure from the current kowtowing and apologetic scraping that have passed for Philippine diplomacy with Beijing.