US President Joe Biden landed in Asia on Saturday and vowed to urge Chinese leader Xi Jinping to rein in North Korea when they hold their first in-person meeting at the G20 summit next week. Biden landed in Phnom Penh to meet with Southeast Asian leaders ahead of his meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Bali on Monday.
The meeting between the two superpowers comes after a record string of missile tests by North Korea raised fears that the reclusive nation would soon conduct its seventh nuclear test.
At Monday's meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Biden Xi will tell China, Pyongyang's closest ally, has an "interest in playing a constructive role in curbing North Korea's worst tendencies," he told reporters to the National US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. .Biden will also tell Xi that if North Korea's nuclear and missile buildup "continues down this path, it will simply mean an increased US military and security presence in the -R region."
" Sullivan said Biden will not make demands on China but will give Xi "his perspective." That is, “North Korea poses a threat not just to the United States, not just to (South Korea) and Japan. but for peace and peace "stability throughout the region". If China wants to increase pressure on North Korea, "Of course it's up to them," Sullivan said.
However, with North Korea rapidly expanding its missile capabilities, "the operational situation is more acute right now," Sullivan told. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida added his voice to calls for concerted international action to halt Pyongyang's missile program during talks with ASEAN, China and South Korea.
Tokyo and Seoul are increasingly concerned about North Korea's test bombing, which has included an ICBM. Biden and Xi, leaders of the world's two largest economies, have spoken on the phone several times since Biden took office in January 2021. But the Covid-19 pandemic and Xi's subsequent aversion to foreign travel have prevented them from meeting in person.
Regional rivalry The pair are not short of issues to discuss, with Washington and Beijing amid disputes over issues linked to trade to human rights in Xinjiang, China. Region and the autonomous island nation of Taiwan. UN chief Antonio Guterres urged the two sides to work together and on Friday warned of "a growing risk that the global economy will be split in two, led by the two largest economies". -- United States and China.
Ahead of the G20, Biden will increase US engagement with Southeast Asia in meetings with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders to counter Beijing's influence in the region. China has flexed its muscles through trade. , diplomacy and military influence, in recent years in a region that considers it its strategic backyard.
Biden flew to Phnom Penh with an agenda that emphasizes his administration's policy of "increasing" the US presence, he said. Biden will "advocate the need for freedom of navigation for unhindered and legal trade and ensure that the United States plays a constructive role in maintaining peace and stability in the region." Xi emerges, Putin is absent
Biden and Xi join the G20 buoyed by recent domestic gains: Biden's party posted surprisingly strong mid-term results and Xi secured a historic third term as China's leader. At last month's Communist Party congress, where he was again anointed as chief, Xi warned of a challenging geopolitical climate without mentioning the United States while weaving a narrative of China's "inevitable" triumph over adversity.
The G20 summit will be the latest step in a post-pandemic diplomatic resurgence by Xi in 1, coming less than two weeks after he received Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing. In addition to Biden, Xi will also meet with French President Emmanuel Macron before traveling to Bangkok for the APEC summit later in the week. The summit will be Russian President Vladimir Putin, shunned by the West for his invasion of Ukraine, who will send Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov instead.
Lavrov will insist on Moscow's view that the United States is "destabilizing" the Asia-Pacific region with a confrontational approach, Russia's TASS news agency reported. the ASEAN meeting was rejected.
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