On 7 and 8 of June 2024, the ASEAN + 3 Senior Officials Meeting (APT), the East Asia Summit (EAS) Senior Officials Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Senior Officials Meeting were held in Vientiane, Laos.
During the meetings, the level of cooperation between the parties was analyzed and the development directions for the next period were agreed upon. Participants reviewed preparations for the ASEAN+3, EAS and ARF foreign ministers’ meetings, along with the ASEAN+3 and EAS summits to be held in Laos in July and October.
The EAS was chaired by Lao PDR Deputy Foreign Minister Thongphane Savanphet. Delegations from 19 countries (10 ASEAN member states and 8 ASEAN dialogue partners, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the USA) and Timor-Leste participated. The main issues discussed included strengthening the EAS platform at the level of heads of state, implementing the ASEAN Outlook for the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and regional and international issues such as the situation in the South China Sea, Gaza, the Korean Peninsula, Myanmar and Ukraine.
Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong led China’s delegation. He said at the meetings that the PRC is now making every effort to promote China’s modernization and that his country is willing to provide opportunities to the states in the region to achieve common development.
All parties should maintain the right direction in regional cooperation and support the unity and centrality of ASEAN; to adopt a correct understanding of stable and positive interactions and to see each other as partners rather than rivals; to follow the right path of openness and inclusiveness, of building consensus. They should manage differences appropriately.
SUN WEIDONG
He went on to stress the importance of the APT “as the main channel of cooperation in East Asia, with the aim of promoting regional economic integration, enhancing crisis response capacities, promoting sustainable development and strengthening social and cultural exchanges”. A clear attack on other platforms which also include the USA.
Sun Weidong sternly rejected the attacks and slanders made by certain countries against China in connection with the South China Sea, and stressed that the Taiwan issue and Hong Kong and Xinjiang are China’s internal affairs and not subject to external interference. He detailed China’s principled positions on issues such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the crisis in Ukraine, the Korean Peninsula and Myanmar.
India was represented by Secretary Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, at the East Asia Summit (EAS) Senior Officials Meeting and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Senior Officials Meeting.
Mazumdar highlighted the key role played by the EAS as the main mechanism for promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. He noted the convergence between India’s Indo-Pacific Ocean Initiative (IPOI) and AOIP. Participants welcomed India’s invitation to the sixth EAS Conference on Maritime Security Cooperation to be held in Mumbai on 4-5 July 2024.
At the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF SOM) senior officials’ meeting held on June 8, 2024, Mazumdar appreciated the role of ASEAN-led mechanisms, and especially ARF [a clear diference from China’s position which highlights the APT platform], in the emerging regional architecture for promoting trust and mutual understanding in the region. He shared India’s concern about the threats posed by terrorism and called for collective action in this regard.
During the visit, Secretary Mazumdar held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Lao PDR (Laos), Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia, the Philippines and the European Union. Bilateral cooperation was reviewed and perspectives on the region were shared during the meetings. In the material published on the website of the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs there is nothing mentioned in connection with any bilateral meeting with Russia and China, India’s BRICS and SCO partners.
The Russian Federation was represented by Alexei Ovcinikov at the East Asia Summit (EAS) Senior Officials’ Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Senior Officials’ Meeting. He is the director of the department for cooperation in Asia and the Pacific of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The Russian side stressed the importance of continuing joint efforts in key areas of cooperation within the ARF and EAS, including the implementation of leaders’ decisions on the launch of the regional mechanism for the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases, as well as the establishment of tourism-related interaction among the EAS-participating states.
️During the exchange of views on current issues in Asia-Pacific, the Russian delegation expressed its position on the political-military risks associated with building a network of blocs with high conflict potential in the region and bringing the danger posed by NATO to East Asia.
Russia reiterated its position on maintaining and strengthening ASEAN’s central role in regional affairs on the basis of ASEAN-led multilateral cooperation platforms such as EAS, ARF and ADMM-Plus.
Sources
- Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong Attends Senior Officials’ Meetings on East Asian Cooperation
- East Asia Summit (EAS) and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) in Vientiane, Lao PDR
- APT SOM June, 2024
- On June 7-8, Russia’s Alternate SOM Leader, Director-General of the Department of Asian and Pacific Cooperation of the…
- Vietnam’s Deputy FM attends ASEAN+3, EAS, ARF Senior Officials’ Meetings in Laos
Comment
These were not meetings at the level of foreign ministers, but they are a preliminary stage for the summits that will take place in July and October. There is a feeling that Southeast Asian states are either courted or threatened by various state actors to choose sides.
The US, a non-Eurasian participant but still part of the “Pacific” region, expands its authority through allies, partners or subordinates such as the European Union, Japan, Australia, South Korea and India. Although the meetings theoretically target only the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, the topics of debate have also extended to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, while crises such as those related to the South China Sea and Taiwan are exacerbated with the aim of generating radical anti-China positions.
The statements of the representative of China testify to the fact that these forums, the EAS and ARF in particular, are at risk of becoming anti-Beijing platforms, while the representative of Russia has more or less directly attacked the US for promoting NATO expansion in East Asia and for trying to form coalitions.
India seeks to promote its own visions of international relations, with initiatives and conferences designed to raise the country’s prestige and authority in terms of global governance. This is understandable, but what is negatively surprising is that, as a member of the BRICS and the SCO, it has a duty to support its partners in multilateral organizations, and yet it does not choose to do so in a consistent manner.
On June 6, the Ministerial Meeting of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity was held in the Republic of Singapore | Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) and the Investor Forum. Representatives from the U.S. (Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce; Doug McKalip, Chief Negotiator on Agriculture), Australia (Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism), Brunei (Amin Liu, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Economy), Fiji (Manoa Kamikamiza, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications), India (Sunil Bhaswal, Secretary of Commerce; Rajeju Agrawal, Secretary in the Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Trade and Industry), Indonesia (Airlangga Hartartarto, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs), Malaysia (Zahurul Aziz, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry), New Zealand (Todd Michael McClay, Minister of Commerce, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Forestry, Minister of Game and Fisheries and Simon Watts, Minister of Climate Change and Minister in charge of Revenue), the Philippines (Alfredo Pascual, Secretary of Trade and Industry), South Korea (In-kyo Chung, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy), Singapore (Gan Kim Yong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry), Thailand (Maris Sangiampongsa, Minister of Foreign Affairs), Vietnam (Nguyen Hong Dien, Minister of Industry and Trade) and Japan (Saito Ken, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and Tsuji Kiyoto, State Minister for Foreign Affairs).
The IPEF Clean Economy Agreement, the IPEF Fair Economy Agreement and the IPEF Agreement were signed, the negotiations of which were concluded in San Francisco, USA, in November 2023. In addition to these agreements, the current state of implementation of the IPEF Agreement on Supply Chains, which entered into force in February 2024, was also discussed.
Minister Tsuji of Japan welcomed the signing of the agreements and expressed his willingness to cooperate for their entry into force as soon as possible. He underlined Japan’s intention to strengthen cooperation to promote a fair economy within the framework of the IPFF.
The Investors’ Forum was organized to promote cooperation within the business environment, between private companies and institutional investors, in order to attract investments in sustainable infrastructure. The forum was attended by ministers from IPEF partner countries, public lenders and government agencies, development banks, institutional investors, as well as private companies. A series of bilateral meetings were also organized.
Source: Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Ministerial