Russia's Lavrov says West seeking to militarise southeast Asia
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the US was "militarizing" Southeast Asia to contain Moscow's and Beijing’s interests, setting the stage for a confrontation between Russia and Western leaders at the G20 summit in Bali.
Lavrov made the remarks on Sunday at Phnom Penh’s airport after attending the East Asia Summit in Cambodia — and before flying to Bali for the G20 summit where China’s leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden will meet.
His comments came after earlier on Sunday Biden said he would establish “red lines” with Xi.
Washington is trying to boost its influence in Southeast Asia, worried by Beijing’s increasingly assertive behavior in the region.
Lavrov accused the US of pushing the “militarization of this region, clearly aimed at containing China and limiting Russian interests in the region.”
He called Washington’s strategy, which has seen the US push for closer relations with Southeast Asian nations, “not inclusive and that compete with the inclusive structures created around ASEAN.”
"The Asia-Pacific space, which has developed for several decades around the initiatives of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), around which an inclusive, open, equal structure of security and cooperation has developed, the United States and its NATO allies are trying to master this space,” he said.
“Formats are being advanced which are not open to everyone, which essentially compete with the inclusive structures created around ASEAN, and which involve the militarization of the region with an obvious focus on containing China and containing Russian interests," he added.
Biden told Southeast Asian leaders that Washington was committed to building an "Indo Pacific that's free and open, stable and prosperous, and resilient and secure" as he outlined a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the United States and the region.
Neither the United States nor Russia is a member of ASEAN, a 10-member group of southeast Asian countries.
The G20 meeting is going to be a first of its kind meeting since the war in Ukraine escalated where Kiev is set to dominate the agenda in the presence of world leaders.
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