Top powers to discuss range of disputes at South-East Asian security meeting

War in Ukraine and North Korean missiles expected to dominate talks in Indonesia

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, right, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Jakarta on Thursday. AFP

Leaders from the US, China and Russia are attending a security meeting with South-East Asian foreign ministers in Indonesia on Friday with US-China rivalry, the war in Ukraine and North Korean missiles expected to dominate the round-table talks.

The 27-member Asean Regional Forum will provide an arena for big powers to put their heads together over a range of issues, although the closed-door round table has previously been a fractious affair.

In opening remarks to foreign ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean), chairman and Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the gathering aimed to seek solutions rather than exacerbate regional and global problems.

He said Asean cannot become a proxy, as US-China tensions flare over self-ruled Taiwan, Beijing's close ties with Moscow, and a tug-of-war for influence in the South Pacific.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, China's top diplomat Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will attend the forum, a body set up to discuss security issues and which also includes Japan, South Korea and Australia.

“We, the Asean members that are developing, need the understanding, wisdom, support from developed countries, from our neighbouring countries, to leave the zero-sum approach and take a win-win-solution approach,” he said.

Mr Blinken held “candid and constructive” talks with Mr Wang on Thursday in Jakarta, according to the US State Department, the latest in a series of interactions it said are aimed at managing differences between the two superpowers.

US-China sparring dominated last year's forum, which came a few days after Nancy Pelosi, who was US house speaker at the time, visited Taiwan, enraging Beijing, which launched live-fire drills around Taiwan and closed numerous channels of dialogue with Washington.

Thursday's meeting was part of continuing efforts to keep channels of communication open and “responsibly manage competition by reducing the risk of misperception and miscalculation”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Mr Wang told Mr Blinken the key to bringing the relationship back on the right track was adopting “a rational and pragmatic attitude”, China's Foreign Ministry said.

On Thursday, Chinese fighter jets monitored a US Navy patrol plane that flew through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, as China carried out military exercises south of the island.

The 10-member Asean hosts an East Asia Summit on Friday morning before holding a separate meeting with Mr Blinken.

Lavrov meets Wang

They will be joined in the afternoon by the foreign ministers of Russia, Australia, Japan, Britain, South Korea, and more, for the closed-doors forum, which is expected to address Pyongyang's launch this week of its latest Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, which it defended on Thursday at the UN Security Council.

Mr Lavrov is also in Jakarta, where he gave an interview saying the war in Ukraine would not end until the West “gives up its plans to preserve its domination”, including its “obsessive desire” to defeat Russia strategically.

After a meeting with Mr Lavrov, Mr Wang said the two sides would “strengthen strategic communication and co-ordination”.

Western countries are expected to condemn Myanmar's ruling military for its alleged atrocities against the civilian population, as the junta cracks down on its opponents and uses fighter jets and heavy artillery to flush out an armed pro-democracy resistance movement.

Asean member Myanmar has been barred from the bloc's meetings over the junta's failure to honour a two-year-old deal with the grouping to end hostilities and start dialogue.

Asean's unity has been tested over how to approach the crisis.

The bloc late on Thursday “strongly condemned the continued acts of violence, including air strikes, artillery shelling, and destruction of public facilities” in its customary communique, which was issued more than 30 hours after foreign ministers concluded their meeting, a delay that in previous years has indicated discord over its contents.