China, Russia vow to crack down on “external forces” in Southeast Asia

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to arrive Held talks with ASEAN foreign ministers in Vientiane on Saturday morning.

Blinken has made Washington’s alliances in Asia a foreign policy priority aimed at “advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific” — a veiled criticism of China and its ambitions.

But Blinken cut his Asia trip short by one day to attend a White House meeting on Thursday. Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A spokesperson for Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said Wang Yi and Blinken would meet in Laos to “exchange views on issues of common concern.”

South China Sea Dispute

Wang Yi met with foreign ministers from ASEAN countries on Friday and expressed appreciation for Beijing’s deepening economic ties with the ASEAN region.

Wang Yi held a customary handshake meeting with the Myanmar president, accompanied by Aung Kyaw Moe, permanent secretary of the Myanmar Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The ASEAN bloc has banned Myanmar military holds high-level meeting on 2021 coup and the repression of dissent, which plunged the country into chaos.

Lavrov also met with ASEAN foreign ministers in Vientiane but did not answer reporters’ questions.

ASEAN ministers are expected to issue a joint communique after the three-day meeting.

A diplomatic source said the joint communique was due to concerns about the Myanmar conflict and South China Sea Dispute.

Beijing claims almost all of the waterway, through which trillions of dollars in trade pass each year, despite international tribunals ruling that its claims have no legal basis.

Some Southeast Asian countries have competing claims.