VP Harris to face doubts and dysfunction at Southeast Asia summit

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris will deepen her outreach to Southeast Asia this week at a global summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, the place she’ll attempt to erase doubts about U.S. dedication to the area stirred by President Joe Biden’s absence.

It’s Ms. Harris’ third journey to Southeast Asia and fourth to Asia total, and she or he’s touched down in additional international locations there than every other continent. The repeat visits, along with conferences that she’s hosted in Washington, have positioned Ms. Harris as a key interlocutor for the administration because it tries to bolster a community of partnerships to counterbalance Chinese affect.

This newest journey is one other alternative for Ms. Harris to burnish her international coverage credentials as she prepares for a bruising marketing campaign 12 months. She’s already come beneath assault from Republican presidential candidates who say she’s unprepared to step up if Mr. Biden – the oldest U.S. president in historical past — can’t end a second time period.

John Kirby, a White House nationwide safety spokesman, mentioned Ms. Harris has “made our alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific a key part of her agenda as vice president,” and he described her itinerary as “perfectly in keeping with the issues that she’s been focused on.”

But Mr. Biden’s resolution to skip the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, referred to as ASEAN, has triggered some frustration, significantly as a result of he’s already going to be in India and Vietnam across the identical time. The president’s proximity makes his nonattendance “all the more glaring than would otherwise be the case,” mentioned Marty Natalegawa, Indonesia’s former international affairs minister.

However, Mr. Natalegawa conceded that ASEAN is struggling to persuade world leaders that it deserves to play a central function within the area. That’s despite the fact that the alliance represents greater than 650 million individuals throughout 10 nations that collectively have the world’s fifth-largest financial system.

The group has not resolved civil strife in Myanmar, which noticed a navy coup two years in the past and has been disinvited from conferences. A peace plan reached with the nation’s prime common didn’t result in any progress.

Negotiations over territorial claims within the South China Sea stay slowed down as properly, and ASEAN faces inside disagreements over international competitors between the United States and China. 

Some members, such because the Philippines and Vietnam, have sought nearer ties with Washington, whereas Cambodia stays firmly in Beijing’s orbit.

“We can complain all we want about other countries not respecting us or not coming to our summits,” Mr. Natalegawa mentioned. “But ultimately, it is actually a point of reflection.”

Unless ASEAN turns into simpler, Mr. Natalegawa mentioned, “we may end up with less and less leaders turning up.”

Mr. Kirby, the nationwide safety spokesman, rejected the concept Mr. Biden was snubbing the group or the area.

“It’s just impossible to look at the record that this administration has put forward and say that we are somehow walking away,” Mr. Kirby mentioned, noting that Mr. Biden already hosted the first-ever Washington summit with ASEAN leaders final 12 months.

Ja-Ian Chong, an affiliate professor of political science on the National University of Singapore, mentioned Ms. Harris’ presence helps the U.S. cowl its bases at an occasion that will not show productive on key points.

“You want to show that you’re paying attention, you send the vice president,” he mentioned.

Ms. Harris departed Monday morning and can spend two days enmeshed in conferences in Jakarta. She’s anticipated to attend summit occasions and maintain particular person talks with some international leaders.

Soon after Ms. Harris returns from Indonesia, Mr. Biden is headed to India for the annual Group of 20 summit, which pulls collectively lots of the world’s richest international locations and is a staple of any president’s calendar. Then he plans to cease in Vietnam, the place he’s centered on strengthening ties with a rustic that’s an rising financial energy.

“I don’t fault the administration for the choice that they made. It’s just unfortunate that they had to make that choice,” mentioned Gregory B. Poling, who directs the Southeast Asia program on the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Leaders are gathering in Jakarta amid heightened rigidity over the South China Sea after Beijing launched a brand new official map that emphasizes its territorial claims there.

The map has angered different nations that contemplate the waters to be a part of their very own territory or worldwide byways. The South China Sea is a important crossroads for international commerce.

U.S. officers and analysts imagine Beijing’s aggressive strategy to the area has created a gap for Washington to forge stronger partnerships.

“In many ways, the PRC is doing its work for us,” mentioned David Stilwell, utilizing the acronym for the People’s Republic of China. Mr. Stilwell served because the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs beneath President Donald Trump.

Although a lot of Mr. Biden’s current consideration has been on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he’s left little question that he considers China to be the highest international coverage problem for the U.S. He’s described a lot of his agenda, each home and abroad, as an effort to discourage Beijing from supplanting Washington as probably the most highly effective worldwide power.

Sometimes his warnings take a darker flip. During a current fundraiser for his reelection marketing campaign in Park City, Utah, Mr. Biden described China as a “ticking time bomb” due to its financial and demographic challenges.

“That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things,” he mentioned.

Ms. Harris has beforehand visited Singapore and Vietnam, Japan and South Korea, and the Philippines and Thailand.

Many of her travels have been geared towards the worldwide rivalry with China.

Speaking from the deck of a U.S. Navy destroyer docked close to Tokyo final 12 months, Ms. Harris mentioned China has “challenged freedom of the seas” and “flexed its military and economic might to coerce and intimidate its neighbors.”

Ms. Harris additionally grew to become the highest-ranking U.S. official to go to Palawan, a Filipino island adjoining to the South China Sea that has been a entrance line for the territorial disputes. She mentioned that Washington would assist the Philippines “in the face of intimidation and coercion.”

— Associated Press author Edna Tarigan contributed from Jakarta, Indonesia.