The shadow of North Korean missiles will hover over the last day of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Phnom Penh.
After a record series of weapons tests by the Kim Jong Un regime, Joe Biden initiates his diplomatic response by appearing on the same line as Tokyo and Seoul, two long-time allies worried about a possible North American nuclear test. Korean, which would be the first since 2017.
The American president meets in the afternoon Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, whom the crisis with Pyongyang has brought closer, despite historic differences between their countries.
They will discuss their strategy vis-à-vis the threat posed by North Korea’s “weapons of mass destruction and illegal ballistic missile program”, the White House said.
Their last trilateral meeting dates back to June.
Pyongyang justified its action in reaction to the largest aerial maneuvers ever carried out by the United States and South Korea.
Joe Biden also intends to discuss the threats posed by North Korea during his meeting on Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 on the Indonesian island of Bali.
This highly anticipated face-to-face between the two leaders will be the first since the beginning of the American president’s mandate, in a context of strong tensions between the two superpowers.
In particular, he intends to tell Mr. Xi that it is in Beijing’s interest to “play a constructive role in curbing the worst tendencies of North Korea”, said Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to the American president, on Saturday. .
“North Korea poses a threat not only to the United States, not only to (South Korea) and Japan, but also to peace and stability in the entire region,” he insisted.
– Lavrov in Phnom Penh –
The United States has military bases in Japan and South Korea. This presence is perceived as a threat to China, a rival superpower which takes a dim view of Washington’s commitment to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion – as well as its repeated accusations of “genocide” of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Mr. Biden on Saturday slipped a discreet allusion to Beijing, which he did not name, saying he wanted to collaborate with ASEAN to “defend against significant threats to the rule-based order and the ‘rule of law’.
The American leader, reinforced by the latest results of the mid-term elections, presents himself as a champion of democracy against the authoritarian regimes of Moscow or Beijing.
Joe Biden and Li Keqiang, the Chinese premier, were separated at the gala dinner table on Saturday by the host of the ceremony, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
They will participate together in the summit of East Asia, which brings together members of Asean and their main partners, on Sunday morning.
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov will also be present. He met on Saturday with several of his counterparts from Southeast Asia, a region which for the most part strives to remain neutral vis-à-vis the conflict in Ukraine.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is likely to return to the table in the busy streak that is coming, between G20 in Bali and the Asia-Pacific Forum (Apec) in Bangkok, where he will continue to represent President Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to participate via screens at the G20, after his request to deliver a video message to ASEAN was rejected.
