Southeast Asians wary of new conflicts as big powers join ASEAN summit
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov joined the summit in the Indonesian capital led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), along with leaders of other partner countries.
Tensions have accompanied the talks on issues from trade and technology, to China's increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea, the Myanmar junta's refusal to cooperate with ASEAN on a peace plan, the war in Ukraine, and suspicion that North Korea plans to supply weapons to Russia.
Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries have warned this week of «destructive» rivalries between major powers, a reference to U.S.-China tensions that they say puts them in danger.
«We all have a responsibility to not create new conflict, new tension, new war and at the same time we also have a responsibility to reduce tensions,» Widodo, as chair of the 10-member ASEAN bloc this year, said at the beginning of the East Asia Summit.
Cooperation and multilateralism risked being replaced by «the rule of the strong».
«The world will be destroyed if conflicts and tensions in one place are taken to another place,» he said in closing the summit.
On Wednesday, China's Li warned against starting a «new Cold War» and warned countries against taking sides in any conflict.
Harris, attending in place of President Joe Biden, reiterated her country's «enduring commitment» to Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
A White House official said earlier the U.S.
shared interests with ASEAN in «upholding the rules-based international order, including in the South China Sea, in the face of China's unlawful maritime claims and provocative actions».
Harris underscored U.S. opposition to «unilateral changes to
