U.S. President Joe Biden pictured in front of China and U.S. flags.
Yuri Gripas | Reuters
U.S. President Joe Biden told Asian leaders on Sunday that U.S. lines of communication with China would stay open to prevent conflict, as the first of three summits of world leaders this week came to a close.
Addressing the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, Biden said the United States would compete with China and speak out over its human rights record, but stressed the importance of peace in the Taiwan Strait and ensuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
Biden also condemned Russia’s “brutal and unjust” invasion of Ukraine and the threats of North Korea’s missile tests, the White House said, and called on Myanmar’s military rulers to follow a peace plan they agreed to with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
On China, Biden told the summit that “the United States will compete vigorously…. while keeping lines of communication open and ensuring competition does not veer into conflict,” the White House said in a statement.
The Southeast Asia region is also hosting the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Indonesia’s Bali this week, ahead of which Biden will meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the first time since taking office, with relations between the two superpowers at their worst in decades.
The war in Ukraine is expected to figure prominently in discussions in Bali and at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bangkok at the end of the week, as…
