US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to arrive in Vientiane on Saturday morning for talks with ASEAN foreign ministers.
Blinken has made Washington’s alliances in Asia a top foreign policy priority, with the aim of “advancing a free and open” Indo-Pacific – a veiled way of criticising China and its ambitions.
But Blinken shortened his Asia itinerary by a day to be present for Thursday’s White House meeting between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Wang and Blinken will meet in Laos, a spokeswoman for Beijing’s foreign ministry said, to “exchange views on issues of common concern”.
SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE
On Friday Wang met ASEAN foreign ministers and hailed Beijing’s deepening economic ties with the region.
For the customary joint handshake, Wang stood next to Myanmar’s representative Aung Kyaw Moe, permanent secretary to the foreign affairs ministry.
The ASEAN bloc has banned Myanmar’s junta from high-level meetings over its 2021 coup and crackdown on dissent that have plunged the country into turmoil.
Lavrov also met ASEAN counterparts at the venue in Vientiane but did not take questions from journalists
ASEAN ministers are expected to issue a joint communique after the three-day meeting.
One diplomatic source said the joint communique is being held up by a lack of consensus over the wording of the paragraphs on the Myanmar conflict and disputes in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims the waterway – through which trillions of dollars of trade passes annually – almost in its entirety despite an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
Several Southeast Asian countries have competing claims.
