Biden to have ‘private time’ with each Asean leader official

US President Joe Biden will have “private time” with each in a group of visiting South-East Asian leaders during a summit this week in Washington, a senior US administration official said.

The official also told reporters on Wednesday on a call that discussions were under way with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) about the possibility of having an empty chair represent Myanmar at the summit.

Asean has barred Myanmar’s junta from attending its summits until it sees progress in a five-point “consensus” agreed last year in hopes of ending violence that has erupted since generals seized power and detained the country’s democratically elected leaders.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said on Wednesday that Hanoi was interested in helping the United States realise the aims of its proposed economic framework for the Indo-Pacific, but needed time to study the details.

Chinh, in Washington for a two-day summit between President Joe Biden and South-East Asian leaders, said he had had discussions on Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) with US officials earlier on Wednesday.

“We would like to work with the US to realise the four pillars of that initiative,” he told a question-and-answer session after delivering a speech at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Chinh said that the pillars were supply chain stability, digital economy, the fight against climate change and a fourth related to labour, tax and combating corruption. — Reuters