Russia, China Foreign ministers gear up for talks as ASEAN summit begins

• Russia and China’s foreign ministers will meet on the sidelines of ASEAN foreign ministers talks in Laos.
• The three-day meeting, which began in Vientiane, focuses on South China Sea tensions and the conflict in Myanmar.
• Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi will meet for a 40-minute “ministerial meeting.”

On Thursday, the foreign ministers of Russia and China will meet on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers talks in Laos, according to a schedule seen by AFP. The three-day meeting of the 10-member ASEAN bloc began in the capital, Vientiane, with the South China Sea tensions and the conflict in Myanmar as key topics on the agenda.

Sergei Lavrov will meet Wang Yi at 6 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) for a 40-minute “ministerial meeting,” according to the schedule. Journalists reported that both men have already arrived in Vientiane to attend the ASEAN talks as observers, alongside foreign ministers from the United Kingdom and Canada.

India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrived in Vientiane on Thursday, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also expected to attend. On Thursday, ASEAN ministers worked on a unified stance regarding the civil war in member state Myanmar, according to a Southeast Asian diplomat at the talks.

“Myanmar is not resolved yet but we’re almost there,” the source said, requesting anonymity to speak to the media.

A draft ASEAN communique seen by AFP states that ministers “strongly condemned” the ongoing violence resulting from the military’s 2021 coup, which has plunged the country into turmoil. The junta is struggling to suppress armed opposition to its coup and has been barred from high-level ASEAN meetings due to its crackdown on dissent. Although it had previously refused to send “non-political representatives” to high-level ASEAN meetings, Myanmar is now represented by two senior bureaucrats at the talks in Vientiane.

The diplomatic source told AFP that the military’s willingness to re-engage diplomatically indicated its “weakened position.” On Thursday, an ethnic minority armed group claimed that its fighters had captured a town and a military regional command in northern Shan state, although the junta maintained that it was still in control. Indonesia’s foreign minister criticized the Myanmar junta on Thursday for its refusal to engage with a regional peace plan aimed at resolving the crisis caused by its coup.

Retno Marsudi made the remarks after meeting her Singaporean counterpart on the sidelines of the Vientiane meeting. Weeks after seizing power, the junta agreed to a five-point peace plan with ASEAN but has since ignored it while conducting a crackdown on dissent and battling armed opposition to its rule.

“We shared the same view on the lack of commitment of Myanmar military junta to implement the 5PC (five-point consensus),” Marsudi wrote on social media platform X.

The ASEAN agenda also includes a series of clashes between Philippine and Chinese vessels at flashpoint reefs in the South China Sea in recent months, according to the diplomatic source. Beijing claims almost the entire waterway, through which trillions of dollars in trade pass annually, despite an international court ruling that found its assertion has no legal basis.
In a confrontation on June 17, a Filipino sailor lost a thumb when Chinese coast guard members wielding knives, sticks, and an axe thwarted a Philippine Navy attempt to resupply its troops on a remote outpost. The source said the Philippines is working to include a mention of these injuries in the joint communique, expected later Thursday. According to the US State Department, Blinken is also expected to “discuss the importance of adherence to international law in the South China Sea” when he arrives in Laos.

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