PM Lee heads to Cambodia for Asean Summit, with Myanmar crisis high on the agenda
Lee U-Wen
SOUTH-EAST Asian leaders – including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong – are in Cambodia for the 40th and 41st Asean Summits and Related Summits that will be held from Thursday (Nov 10) to Sunday.
US President Joe Biden is among the other world leaders gathering in the capital Phnom Penh, and White House officials have said he is expected to stress the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and across the Indo-Pacific region when he meets with his Asean counterparts. He is also likely to address many other pressing issues such as efforts to promote human rights and the ongoing crisis in Myanmar.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is present as well, having arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday to begin a six-day official visit. This is his first trip overseas since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic nearly three years ago.
Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni is due to meet with Asean’s heads of state and heads of government before the meetings begin proper.
In a statement on Thursday, Singapore’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said that the Asean leaders will discuss how the 10-member bloc “can continue to uphold the spirit of collective endeavour” in the promotion of peace, prosperity and stability in the region as they look to recover from the pandemic.
“As (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) marks it 55th anniversary (this year), the leaders will also take stock of Asean’s achievements and chart the way forward in efforts to strengthen regional cooperation and reinforce Asean centrality, while responding effectively to regional and global challenges,” said the PMO.
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The leaders will also exchange views on regional and international developments, including the worsening situation in Myanmar. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s military junta, has not been invited to attend the summit. Myanmar has also rejected the invitation to send a non-political representative to the summit.
Over the course of the four-day gathering, the leaders are also expected to discuss the ongoing disputes in the South China Sea, regional trade and climate change.
While in Cambodia, the Asean leaders will meet with various external partners during the Asean Plus Three Summit (with China, Japan and South Korea) and the East Asia Summit (with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the US).
They will also have separate summits with Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea, the US and the United Nations. The summit with India is a commemorative one to mark 30 years of dialogue relations, while the one with Canada is being held to mark 45 years of dialogue relations.
PM Lee will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, as well as officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong will be the Acting PM while PM Lee is away.
At the close of the summits on Sunday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will hand over the gavel of the Asean chair to Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who will hold the rotating chairmanship of the bloc in 2023.
The Asean Summit is the first of three high-level meetings being held in the region over the next 10 days. World leaders will be on the Indonesian resort island of Bali for the Group of 20 summit on Nov 15-16, followed by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok on Nov 18-19.
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